actual
/ˈækʃuəl/adjective, noun
actual is spelled A-C-T-U-A-L. The wrong spelling people search most is acutal: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 47 of all searches for the word. Actual is an adjective meaning “relating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical”.
How many letters and syllables are in actual?
| Letters | 6: A-C-T-U-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 71 times per million words; the 1,486th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, acutal, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell actual?
Actual is spelled A-C-T-U-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 47 of the searches for actual in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is actual?
Actual appears 71 times per million words in written English, the 1,486th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce actual?
- /ˈækʃuəl/
- /ˈækʃəl/
- /ˈæktʃuəl/
Actual has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-actual.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of actual
- actuals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does actual mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
relating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical
- 2
Existing in reality, not just potentially; really acted or acting; occurring in fact.
the actual cost of goods; the actual case under discussion
- 3
in action at the time being; now existing; current.
- 4
Used as intensifier to emphasise a following noun; exact, specific, very.
noun
- 1
something actually received; real receipts, as distinct from estimated ones.
- 2
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, this is Charlie One. Come in, over.
- 3
Reality, usually with the definite article.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate actual?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of actual: act..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Actual in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | réel, effectif |
| German | tatsächlich, konkret , gegenwärtig, aktuell |
| Portuguese | real, efectivo , actual , em si |
| Spanish | actual |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does actual come from?
From Middle English actual, actuel (“active”), from Anglo-Norman actuel, actual, and its source Late Latin actuālis (“active, practical”), from Latin actus (“act, action, performance”), from agere (“to do; to act”) + -alis (“-al”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti, from the root *h₂eǵ-. By surface analysis, act + -u- + -al.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).