actuality

/ˈæktʃəˌwælədi/

/æktʃuˈælɪti/

Other forms: actualities

Actuality is the quality of being real or true. You might wish you could make friends with a bear, but in actuality, you should definitely not climb into the grizzly enclosure at the zoo.

Use this word for anything that's objectively factual — you may be terrified of flying, but in actuality it's much safer than riding in a car. Before it meant "state of being real," the word actuality was defined as "power," from the Latin root actus, or "doing." The meaning had shifted by the 1670s, first to "existing conditions," from the French actuel, "up to date," and then to the current definition.

Definitions of actuality

1. noun

   the state of actually existing objectively
   “a hope that progressed from possibility to actuality”

   types:

   entelechy

   (Aristotle) the state of something that is fully realized; actuality as opposed to potentiality

   genuineness

   the state of being genuine

   realism, reality, realness

   the state of being actual or real

   reality

   the state of the world as it really is rather than as you might want it to be

   the true, trueness, truth, verity

   conformity to reality or actuality

   fact

   an event known to have happened or something known to have existed

   historicalness

   the state of having in fact existed in the past

   type of:

   being, beingness, existence

   the state or fact of existing