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Actual vs Clear - What's the difference?

actual | clear |

As nouns the difference between actual and clear

is that actual is an actual, real one; notably: while clear is (scientology) an idea state of beingness free of unwanted influences.

As an adjective actual

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

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

    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

    Anagrams

    * ----

    clear

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (contraction used in electronics)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Transparent in colour.
  • Bright, not dark or obscured.
  • Free of obstacles.
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path
  • Without clouds.
  • *
  • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  • (lb) Of the sky, such that less than one eighth of its area is obscured by clouds.
  • Free of ambiguity or doubt.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The new masters and commanders , passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.
  • Distinct, sharp, well-marked.
  • (lb) Free of guilt, or suspicion.
  • * (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • Statesman, yet friend to truth! in soul sincere, / In action faithful, and in honour clear .
  • (lb) Without a thickening ingredient.
  • Possessing little or no perceptible stimulus.
  • (lb) Free from the influence of engrams; see .
  • Able to perceive clearly; keen; acute; penetrating; discriminating.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • Mother of science! now I feel thy power / Within me clear , not only to discern / Things in their causes, but to trace the ways / Of highest agents.
  • Not clouded with passion; serene; cheerful.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • With a countenance as clear / As friendship wears at feasts.
  • Easily or distinctly heard; audible.
  • * (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • Hark! the numbers soft and clear / Gently steal upon the ear.
  • Unmixed; entirely pure.
  • Without defects or blemishes, such as freckles or knots.
  • Without diminution; in full; net.
  • * (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
  • I often wished that I had clear , / For life, six hundred pounds a year.

    Antonyms

    * obscure * (of a soup) thick

    Derived terms

    * as clear as a bell * as clear as day * as clear as mud * clarity * clearly * clearness * crystal clear * free and clear * in the clear * keep a clear head * keep clear

    Adverb

    (-)
  • All the way; entirely.
  • I threw it clear across the river to the other side.
  • Not near something or touching it.
  • Stand clear of the rails, a train is coming.
  • free (or separate) from others
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2010 , date=December 29 , author=Chris Whyatt , title=Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Much soul-searching is going on at the west London club who, just seven weeks ago, were five points clear at the top of the table and playing with the verve with which they won the title last season. }}
  • (obsolete) In a clear manner; plainly.
  • * (rfdate) (Milton)
  • Now clear I understand.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To remove obstructions or impediments from.
  • *1715–8 , (Matthew Prior), “Alma: or, The Progre?s of the Mind” in Poems on Several Occa?ions (1741), canto III, p.297:
  • *:Faith, Dick, I mu?t confe?s, ?tis true // (But this is only Entre Nous ) // That many knotty Points there are, // Which All di?cu?s, but Few can clear .
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
  • *:A statue lies hid in a block of marble; and the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=7 citation , passage=‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared .
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear' its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to ' clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.}}
  • (lb) To become freed from obstructions.
  • :
  • *
  • *:“A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable,.
  • (lb) To eliminate ambiguity or doubt from a matter; to clarify; especially, to clear up.
  • (lb) To remove from suspicion, especially of having committed a crime.
  • :
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:Iam sure he will clear me from partiality.
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
  • *:Wouldst thou clear rebellion?
  • (lb) To pass without interference; to miss.
  • :
  • (lb) To become clear.
  • :
  • (lb) Of a check or financial transaction, to go through as payment; to be processed so that the money is transferred.
  • :
  • To earn a profit of; to net.
  • :
  • * (1800-1859)
  • the profit which she cleared on the cargo
  • (lb) To obtain permission to use (a sample of copyrighted audio) in another track.
  • To disengage oneself from incumbrances, distress, or entanglements; to become free.
  • *1613 , (Francis Bacon), (second edition), essay 18: “ Of Expences”:
  • *:Be?ides, he that cleares' at once will relap?e: for finding him?elfe out of ?traights, he will reuert to his cu?tomes. But hee that ' cleareth by degrees, induceth an habite of frugality, and gaineth as well vpon his minde, as vpon his E?tate.
  • To obtain a clearance.
  • :
  • (lb) To defend by hitting (or kicking, throwing, heading etc.) the ball (or puck) from the defending goal.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 29, author=Chris Whyatt, title=Chelsea 1-0 Bolton
  • , work=BBC citation , passage=Bolton then went even closer when Elmander's cross was met by a bullet header from Holden, which forced a wonderful tip over from Cech before Drogba then cleared the resulting corner off the line.}}
  • To fell all trees of a forest.
  • To reset or unset; to return to an empty state or to zero.
  • :
  • Synonyms

    * (clear a forest) stub

    Derived terms

    * clear away * clear off * clear out * clear up * clearance * clearing

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (carpentry) Full extent; distance between extreme limits; especially; the distance between the nearest surfaces of two bodies, or the space between walls.
  • a room ten feet square in the clear

    Statistics

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