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Truth vs Actually - What's the difference?

truth | actually |

As a noun truth

is the state or quality of being true to someone or something.

As a verb truth

is (obsolete|transitive) to assert as true; to declare, to speak truthfully.

As an adverb actually is

(modal) in act or in fact; really; in truth; positively.

truth

English

Alternative forms

* trewth (obsolete)

Noun

(order of senses) (en-noun)
  • The state or quality of being true to someone or something.
  • (label) Faithfulness, fidelity.
  • * (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)
  • Alas! they had been friends in youth, / But whispering tongues can poison truth .
  • (label) A pledge of loyalty or faith.
  • True facts, genuine depiction or statements of reality.
  • * (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)
  • The truth depends on, or is only arrived at by, a legitimate deduction from all the facts which are truly material.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=The truth is that [Isaac] Newton was very much a product of his time. The colossus of science was not the first king of reason, Keynes wrote after reading Newton’s unpublished manuscripts. Instead “he was the last of the magicians”.}}
  • Conformity to fact or reality; correctness, accuracy.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01, author=Robert M. Pringle, volume=100, issue=1, page=31, magazine=(American Scientist), title= How to Be Manipulative
  • , passage=As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.}}
  • Conformity to rule; exactness; close correspondence with an example, mood, model, etc.
  • * John Mortimer (1656?-1736)
  • Ploughs, to go true, depend much on the truth of the ironwork.
  • That which is real, in a deeper sense; spiritual or ‘genuine’ reality.
  • * 1820 , (John Keats), (Ode on a Grecian Urn)
  • Beauty is truth', ' truth beauty, - that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
  • (label) Something acknowledged to be true; a true statement or axiom.
  • * 1813 , (Jane Austen), (Pride and Prejudice)
  • It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
  • Topness. (See also truth quark.)
  • Synonyms

    * See

    Antonyms

    * falsehood, falsity, lie, nonsense, untruth, half-truth

    Derived terms

    * half-truth * if truth be told * tell the truth * truthful * truthiness * truthless * truth or dare * truth serum * truthy

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To assert as true; to declare, to speak truthfully.
  • Had they [the ancients] dreamt this, they would have truthed it heaven. — Ford.
    1966', ''You keep lying, when you oughta be '''truthin' — Nancy Sinatra, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"

    See also

    * (wikipedia)

    Statistics

    *

    actually

    English

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (modal) In act or in fact; really; in truth; positively.
  • Actually , I had nothing to do with that incident.
  • (obsolete) actively
  • Neither actually nor passively. — Fuller.

    Alternative forms

    * actially (nonstandard)

    Usage notes

    * In some other languages a word of similar spelling means "now" or "currently"; (e.g., Portuguese "atualmente", Spanish "actualmente", French "actuellement", German "aktuell", Italian "attualmente", Czech ""). This leads many non-native speakers of English to use "actually" when they mean "now" or "currently". * Some commentators have: *
  • remarked upon the irony that this qualifier of veracity often introduces an utter lie;, page 3 and,
  • *
  • noted that in many cases, (term) functions as little more than a vacuous emphatic utterance.ibidem , page 4
  • * In practice, actually and its synonyms are often used to insinuate that the following is either unusual or contrary to a norm or preceding assumption, or to merely preface an overconfident opinion contrasting a previous statement or norm (as per 'vacuous emphasis' note above). : This is actually a really beautiful song. (contrasting opinion) : Actually , I'm not from France - I'm from Switzerland. (contrary from assumption) : At the check-out, the cashier actually greeted me for once. (contrary from norm)

    Synonyms

    * in reality * literally * really * truthfully