Actuality


existence; reality.
an condition or circumstance; fact:
Space travel is now an actuality.
Contemporary Examples

But in actuality, the novel contains ample material that points to a real and specific time and place.
This Week’s Hot Reads: April 14, 2014 Charles Shafaieh April 13, 2014

In actuality, an encounter with a goddess of the underworld is another step in the second cycle of the monomyth.
The Walking Dead’s Luke Skywalker: Rick Grimes Is the Perfect Modern-Day Mythical Hero Regina Lizik October 27, 2014

In actuality the trading groups were generating profits and the company had enormous potential.
Madoff Employee Breaks Silence Lucinda Franks March 18, 2009

There is a need to humanize plans that work on paper, in the abstract, but lack touchy-feely elements in actuality.
What the Stars Hold for Your Week Starsky + Cox July 29, 2011

To BE is to exist, to have actuality; a BI is a guy or girl with bisexuality.
National Scrabble Day: A Poem So You’ll Know All 101 Two-Letter Words David Bukszpan April 12, 2013

Historical Examples

He went about absorbed in the interest and the actuality of this dream.
The Rainbow D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

Its hardness, solidity, and actuality could not be gainsaid.
The Conquest of Fear Basil King

Growing and growth are the same fact expanded in actuality or telescoped in thought.
Human Nature and Conduct John Dewey

We must therefore also have Rest Camps in name if not in actuality.
The Fifth Battalion Highland Light Infantry in the War 1914-1918 F.L. Morrison

But further, granted that neither factor in itself produces any actuality, which is normally the weightier of the two factors?
Parenthood and Race Culture Caleb Williams Saleeby

noun (pl) -ties
true existence; reality
(sometimes pl) a fact or condition that is real
n.

late 14c., “power, efficacy,” from Old French actualite and directly from Medieval Latin actualitatem (nominative actualitas), from Late Latin actualis (see actual). A Latin loan-translation of Greek energeia. Meaning “state of being real” is from 1670s (actualities “existing conditions” is from 1660s).

Mod. use of actuality in the sense of realism, contact with the contemporary, is due to Fr. actualité, from actuel, which does not mean actual, real, but now existing, up to date. [Weekley]

Read Also:

  • Actualization

    the act or process of . Psychology, . Historical Examples Besides, even if actualization be contemporaneous with potentiality, why should not the first rank be assigned to actualization? Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 3 Plotinos (Plotinus) Hence the process itself is the actualization of the potential. A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy Isaac Husik He had […]

  • Actually

    as an or existing fact; really. Contemporary Examples But the idea that he thinks this can just stop there is preposterous, not to say revolting, actually. Wayne LaPierre, Blaming Everything but Guns Michael Tomasky December 20, 2012 While Hayek, by contrast, is more slippery and much less helpful when it comes to determining what government […]

  • Actuals

    plural noun See physicals Historical Examples Nor did the disastrous discrepancy appear only in the actuals of 1868-69. The Earl of Mayo William Wilson Hunter

  • Actuarial

    Insurance. a person who computes premium rates, dividends, risks, etc., according to probabilities based on statistical records. (formerly) a registrar or clerk. Contemporary Examples Social security encourages behavior which undermines the actuarial soundness of social security itself. Sorry, Folks: One Way or the Other, You’ll Never Be Able to Completely Count on Retirement Megan McArdle […]

  • Actuarian

    Insurance. a person who computes premium rates, dividends, risks, etc., according to probabilities based on statistical records. (formerly) a registrar or clerk. noun (pl) -aries a person qualified to calculate commercial risks and probabilities involving uncertain future events, esp in such contexts as life assurance n. 1550s, “registrar, clerk,” from Latin actuarius “copyist, account-keeper,” from […]


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