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.}}

Adjective

(er)

(of a statement) Conforming to the actual state of reality or fact; factually correct.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title= The China Governess, chapter=20

, passage=The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.

Conforming to a rule or pattern; exact; accurate.

* Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)

making his eye, foot, and hand keep true time

(logic) Of the state in Boolean logic that indicates an affirmative or positive result.

Loyal, faithful.

Genuine.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01

, author=(Henry Petroski), volume=100, issue=1, page=16, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= The Washington Monument , passage=The Washington Monument is often described as an obelisk, and sometimes even as a “true' obelisk,” even though it is not. A ' true obelisk is a monolith, a pylon formed out of a single piece of stone.}}

Legitimate.

Accurate; following a path toward the target.

* {{quote-journal, year=1801, author=Mrs. Cowley

, title=The siege of Acre, journal=The British Critic, volume=17-18?, page=521 , passage=Whate'er the weapon, still his aim was true , Nor e'er in vain the fatal bullet flew.}}

* {{quote-book, year=2008, author=Carl Hiaasen

, title=The downhill lie: a hacker's return to a ruinous sport, page=188 , passage=I held my breath and struck the ball. My aim was true , but I didn't give the damn thing enough gas. It died three feet from the cup.}}

* 1990 , William W. S. Wei, Time Series Analysis , ISBN 0201159112, page 8:

Let $Z\_t$ be twice the value of a true die shown on the $t$-th toss.