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Actual vs Action - What's the difference?

actual | action |

As nouns the difference between actual and action

is that actual is an actual, real one; notably: while action is something done so as to accomplish a purpose.

As an adjective actual

is existing in act or reality, not just potentially; really acted or acting; occurring in fact.

As an interjection action is

demanding or signifying the start of something, usually an act or scene of a theatric performance.

As a verb action is

(management) to act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.

actual

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Existing in act or reality, not just potentially; really acted or acting; occurring in fact.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.}}
  • Factual, real, not just apparent or even false.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=1 citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}
  • (dated) In action at the time being; now existing; current.
  • (obsolete) Active, not passive.
  • * Shakespeare
    • her walking and other actual performances.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • Let your holy and pious intention be actual ; that is given to God.
  • Used to emphasise a noun or verb, whether something is real or metaphorical.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= The machine of a new soul , passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.}}

    Usage notes

    * In some foreign languages the counterpart of (actual) means “current”. This meaning also occurs in English written by non-native speakers, but is nonstandard English. * The phrase (term) is criticised by many as redundant., page 3

    Synonyms

    * (existing in act or reality) real * (in action at the time being) present * positive

    Antonyms

    * (existing in act or reality) potential, possible, virtual, speculative, conceivable, theoretical, nominal, hypothetical, estimated * (in action at the time being) future, past

    Derived terms

    * actualism * actualist * actuality * actualize * actualization * actually

    Related terms

    * activity * actor * actuary

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An actual, real one; notably:
  • # (finance) Something actually received; real receipts, as distinct from estimated ones.
  • # (military) A radio callsign modifier that specifies the commanding officer of the unit or asset denoted by the remainder of the callsign and not the officer's assistant or other designee.
    • "Bravo Six Actual , Snakebite leader" (The person with the callsign "Snakebite leader" requests to speak to the commander of company Bravo and not the radio operator.)

    See also

    * certain * genuine

    References

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    action

    English

    (wikipedia action)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something done so as to accomplish a purpose.
  • A way of motion or functioning.
    • Knead bread with a rocking action .
  • A fast-paced activity.
    • an action movie
  • A mechanism; a moving part or assembly.
    • a rifle action
  • (music): The mechanism, that is the set of moving mechanical parts, of a keyboard instrument, like a piano, which transfers the motion of the key to the sound-making device.Marshall Cavendish Corporation Growing Up with Science p.1079
  • (slang) sexual intercourse.
    • She gave him some action .
  • The distance separating the strings and the fretboard on the guitar.
  • (military) Combat.
    • He saw some action in the Korean War.
  • (legal) A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio ).
  • (mathematics) A mapping from a pairing of mathematical objects to one of them, respecting their individual structures. The pairing is typically a Cartesian product or a tensor product. The object that is not part of the output is said to act'' on the other object. In any given context, ''action'' is used as an abbreviation for a more fully named notion, like group action or ''left group action.
  • The event or connected series of events, either real or imaginary, forming the subject of a play, poem, or other composition; the unfolding of the drama of events.
  • (art, painting and sculpture) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
  • (bowling) spin put on the bowling ball.
  • (business, obsolete, a Gallicism) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.
  • * Burke
    • The Euripus of funds and actions .

    Derived terms

    * actioner * action hero * action item * action man * action movie * action star * actions speak louder than words * direct action * ! * lost in action * missing in action * piece of the action * social action * take action

    Related terms

    * act * agent * agency

    See also

    * deed *

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually an act or scene of a theatric performance.
    • The director yelled ‘Action !’ before the camera started rolling.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (management) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2004
    • , publisher=Pearson Education , author=Ros Jay, Richard Templar , title=Fast Thinking Manager's Manual , edition=Second edition , chapter=Fast thinking: project , section=Fast Thinking Leader citation , isbn=9780273681052 , page=276 , passage=‘Here, give me the minutes of Monday’s meeting. I’ll action your points for you while you get on and sort out the open day.’}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=2005
    • , publisher=Routledge , author=Fritz Liebreich , title=Britain's Navel and Political Reaction to the Illegal Immigration of Jews to Palestine, 1945-1948 , chapter=The physical confrontation: interception and diversion policies in theory and practice citation , isbn=9780714656373 , page=196 , passage=Violent reactions from the Jewish authorities were expected and difficulties of actioning the new guidelines were foreseen.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=2007
    • , publisher=The Stationery Office , editor= , author=Great Britain: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman , title=Tax Credits: Getting it wrong? 5th report session 2006-2007 , chapter=Case study: 11257 , section=Chapter 2: Changes and developments since June 2005 citation , isbn=9780102951172 , page=26 , passage=HMRC said that one reason they had not actioned her appeal was because she had said in her appeal form ‘I am appealing against the overpayment for childcare for 2003-04, 2004-05’, thus implying she was disputing her ‘overpayment’.}}
  • (transitive, chiefly, archaic) To initiate a legal action against someone.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1856
    • , publisher=Stringer & Townsend , author=Thomas Chandler Haliburton , title=The Attaché: or Sam Slick in England , section=Chapter XLVII: The Horse Stealer; or All Trades Have Tricks But Our Own , edition=New Revised Edition citation , page=270 , passage=‘I have no business to settle with you—arrest me, Sir, at your peril and I’ll action you in law for false imprisonment.’}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1844
    • , year_published= , publisher=T. C. Newby , author=Robert Mackenzie Daniel , title=The Grave Digger: A novel by the author of The Scottish Heiress , volume=I , section=Chapter IX: How the Grave-differ entertained a lady citation , pages=189-190 , passage=“Scrip threatened me at first with an action for slander—he spoke of actions to the wrong man though—action! no, no no. I should have actioned him—ha! ha! [...]”}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1871
    • , year_published=2002 , publisher=Oxford University Press US , author=Michael Shermer , quotee=(Alfred Russell Wallace) , title=In Darwin’s shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russell Wallace , section=Chapter 10. Heretic Personality citation , isbn=9780195148305 , page=261 , passage=I have actioned him for Libel, but he won’t plead, and says he will make himself bankrupt & won’t pay a penny.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1996
    • , publisher=Boydell & Brewer , author=Darryl Mark Ogier , title=Reformation and Society in Guernsey , chapter=Discipline: Enforcement , section=Part Two: The Calvinist Regime citation , isbn=9780851156033 , page=148 , passage=In 1589 the Court went so far as to effect a reconciliation between Michel le Petevin and his wife after she actioned him for ill treatment and adultery with their chambermaid.}}

    Usage notes

    * The verb sense (term) is rejected by some usage authorities., page 3

    References

    * OED 2nd edition 1989 * Notes:

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * English words suffixed with -tion ----