actually

adverb

ac·tu·al·ly | \ ˈak-ch(ə-w)ə-lē

, -sh(ə-w)ə-lē; ˈaksh-lē, ˈaks-\

Definition of actually

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

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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

The guest room's vivid red floor was actually a happy accident. — Emma Bazilian, House Beautiful, "Katie Brown's Connecticut House Has All the Color Inspiration You Need," 2 Feb. 2019 Hero Fiennes-Tiffin is actually Ralph Fiennes' nephew. — Noelle Devoe, Seventeen, "33 Mind-Blowing "Harry Potter" Movie Facts That'll Make You Want to Watch Them All Over Again," 31 Jan. 2019 While this will take months to sort out, AMD’s approach with an open standard philosophy vs. Nvidia’s closed standard philosophy is actually pretty typical. — Gordon Mah Ung, PCWorld, "Here's what happens when using a GeForce GPU with a non-validated FreeSync monitor gets ugly," 9 Jan. 2019 Hotel Peter and Paul is actually a bundle of buildings: a 19th-century Catholic church, schoolhouse, convent, and rectory reimagined by Ash NYC with gingham drapes woven in Switzerland and antique furniture shipped from Europe. — Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, "The Next Great Food Scene, Beach Town, and More: The 2019 Trends We're Calling Now," 18 Dec. 2018 Al, a staunch follower of keto, shot back on Twitter that what Jillian did on The Biggest Loser was actually a bad idea. — Kayla Keegan, Good Housekeeping, "Jillian Michaels Wages Keto War By Going Off on Andy Cohen," 18 Jan. 2019 Demi Lovato is ringing in the new year with a new beau at her side and the two of them have actually been together for a while now. — Tamara Fuentes, Seventeen, "Who is Henri Levy? Everything You Need to Know About Demi Lovato's Boyfriend," 31 Dec. 2018 And thanks to exclusively business class and premium economy long haul flights on Singapore Airlines, spending nearly 19 hours in the air didn't actually suck. — Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, "A Year in Travel 2018: Travelogue Podcast," 28 Dec. 2018 That didn’t pan out, suggesting that home prices have finally risen beyond what people can actually pay; wages have risen at a much slower clip than home prices. — Jeff Andrews, Curbed, "Housing market signaled potential future downturn in 2018," 21 Dec. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'actually.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.