ACTUALITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does actuality mean? 

• ACTUALITY (noun)
  The noun ACTUALITY has 1 sense:

1. the state of actually existing objectively

  Familiarity information: ACTUALITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACTUALITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of actually existing objectively

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

a hope that progressed from possibility to actuality

Hypernyms ("actuality" is a kind of...):

being; beingness; existence; face of the earth (the state or fact of existing)

Attribute:

actual; existent (presently existing in fact and not merely potential or possible)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "actuality"):

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)

Derivation:

actual (presently existing in fact and not merely potential or possible)

actual (being or existing at the present moment)

actual (taking place in reality; not pretended or imitated)

actual (existing in act or fact)

 Context examples 

The world of books and bookish folk is very vague, more like a dream memory than an actuality.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He keeps a firm grip upon actuality.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)