Actual (#; 135), a.
Etymology: [OE. actuel, F. actuel, L. actualis, fr. agere to do, act.]
1. Involving or comprising action; active. [Obs.] Her walking and other actual performances. Shak. Let your holy and pious intention be actual; that is . . . by a special prayer or action, . . . given to God. Jer. Taylor.
2. Existing in act or reality; really acted or acting; in fact; real; -- opposed to potential, possible, virtual, speculative, coceivable, theoretical, or nominal; as, the actual cost of goods; the actual case under discussion.
3. In action at the time being; now exiting; present; as the actual situation of the country. Actual cautery. See under Cautery. -- Actual sin (Theol.), that kind of sin which is done by ourselves in contradistinction to "original sin."
Syn. -- Real; genuine; positive; certain. See Real.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Actual, n. (Finance)
Something actually received; real, as distinct from estimated, receipts. [Cant] The accounts of revenues supplied . . . were not real receipts: not, in financial language, "actuals," but only Egyptian budget estimates. Fortnightly Review.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for actual; he lists it under real.
Where he writes about it:
Actual has respect to a thing accomplished by doing, real to a thing as existing by whatever means or from whatever cause, positive to that which is fixed or established, developed to that which has reached completion by a natural process of unfolding. — from real
Actual is in opposition to the supposed, conceived, or reported, and furnishes the proof of its existence in itself; real is opposed to feigned or imaginary, and is capable of demonstration; positive, to the uncertain or doubtful; developed, to that which is undeveloped or incomplete. — from real
The present condition of a thing is its actual condition; ills are real that have a substantial reason; proofs are positive when they give the mind certainty; a plant is developed when it has reached its completed stage. — from real