actually

adverb

ac·​tu·​al·​ly ˈak-ch(ə-w)ə-lē 

-sh(ə-w)ə-lē;

ˈaksh-lē, 

ˈaks-

1

: in act or in fact : really

trying to find out what actually happened

won't actually arrive for an hour

2

: in point of fact

—used to suggest something unexpected

was surprised to learn that she could actually speak German

Synonyms of actually

• honestly
• frankly
• really
• indeed

Examples of actually in a Sentence

actually, I'd rather spend the evening at home

I call her Aunt Emily, but she is actually my cousin, not my aunt.

Recent Examples on the Web

Ask what everyone actually wants from the experience now, including yourself. — Tarot.com, Hartford Courant, 4 Nov. 2026

Critchfield, notably, was one incumbent who actually debated her opponents this fall, according to the Idaho Capital Sun. — Idaho Statesman, 4 Nov. 2026

Anthropic has unveiled FlashProve, an open-source cryptographic system designed to verify whether an AI model actually generated a response without revealing its proprietary weights. — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 4 Nov. 2026

With regard to whether Hugo Boss would actually return to growth in 2027, as had been suggested when the reset began in late 2025, Grieder was unclear. — Cathrin Schaer, Footwear News, 3 Nov. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English actuelly, from actuel, actual actual + -ly -ly entry 2

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for actually

• dually
• contextually
• unusually

Kids Definition

actually

adverb

ac·​tu·​al·​ly ˈak-ch(ə-w)ə-lē 

ˈak-sh(ə-w)ə-lē

: in fact or in truth : really

she actually spoke Spanish

actually, I didn't want to go