What's the difference between actual and possible?

Actual


Definition:

  • (a.) Involving or comprising action; active.
  • (a.) Existing in act or reality; really acted or acting; in fact; real; -- opposed to potential, possible, virtual, speculative, conceivable, theoretical, or nominal; as, the actual cost of goods; the actual case under discussion.
  • (a.) In action at the time being; now exiting; present; as the actual situation of the country.
  • (n.) Something actually received; real, as distinct from estimated, receipts.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I'm not sure Tolstoy ever worked out how he actually felt about love and desire, or how he should feel about it.
  • (2) For viewers in the US, you get the worst possible in-game managerial interview in Mike Matheny, one that's so bad, it's actually great!
  • (3) The blockade of H2 receptors is the primary action of these drugs; however, they possess also secondary actions which may represent untoward effects but in some cases may be actually useful (increase in prostaglandin synthesis, inhibition of LTB4 synthesis, etc.)
  • (4) (Predictive value positive refers to the proportion of all people identified who actually have the disease.)
  • (5) The number of gastrin-immunoreactive cells actually decreases just prior to weaning but then increases at and after, weaning.
  • (6) I usually use them as a rag with which to clean the toilet but I didn’t have anything else to wear today because I’m so fat.” While this exchange will sound baffling to outsiders, to Brits it actually sounds like this: “You like my dress?
  • (7) Specifically, we apply techniques of data preprocessing, orthogonality constraints, and validation of solutions in a complete TC analysis, for the first time using actual MEP data.
  • (8) In the process, the DfE's definition of extremism has shifted from actual bomb-throwers to religious conservatives.
  • (9) To understand the reason for the opposite effect of the molar ratio observed at the middle of and at four residues away from the lysine-rich sequence, actual cross-linked residue(s) was (were) determined by subjecting cross-linked product to a protein sequencer.
  • (10) Cadavers have a multitude of possible uses--from the harvesting of organs, to medical education, to automotive safety testing--and yet their actual utilization arouses profound aversion no matter how altruistic and beneficial the motivation.
  • (11) The deep green people who have an issue with the language of natural capital are actually making the same jump from value to commodification that they state that they don’t want ... They’ve equated one with the other,” he says.
  • (12) "The value the public place on the BBC is actually rising," said Lyons, citing research carried out by the BBC Trust earlier this year.
  • (13) Although less growth occurred with limited glucose, M protein of high specific activity was produced with an actual increase in acid-extractable M protein during the stationary phase of growth.
  • (14) Don't we by chance come across this reciprocal spiral perspective when two people distrust one another without actually showing it?
  • (15) The level of several host-cell polyadenylated RNAs detected as cDNA clones (class 3 transcripts) were unchanged 8 hours after HSV-2 infection, and other cellular transcripts (class 2) actually accumulated at postinfection.
  • (16) The first is that the supposed exaggerated winter birthrate among process schizophrenics actually represents a reduction in spring-fall births caused by prenatal exposure to infectious diseases during the preceding winter--i.e., a high prenatal death rate in process preschizophrenic fetuses.
  • (17) Can somebody who is not a billionaire, who stands for working families, actually win an election into which billionaires are pouring millions of dollars?” Naming prominent and controversial rightwing donors, he said: “It is not just Hillary, it is the Koch brothers, it is Sheldon Adelson.” Stephanopoulos seized the moment, asking: “Are you lumping her in with them?” Choosing to refer to the 2010 supreme court decision that removed limits on corporate political donations, rather than address the question directly, Sanders replied: “What I am saying is that I get very frightened about the future of American democracy when this becomes a battle between billionaires.
  • (18) In these systems, follicular lymphomas are subclassified by estimation of the different cell populations without the actual counting of cells.
  • (19) Estimates of the number of alcoholics in New Zealand indicate that a highly selected minority actually receive treatment for their alcoholism.
  • (20) The interresponse-time reinforcement contingencies inherent in these schedules may actually mask the effects of overall reinforcement rate; thus differences in response rate as a function of reinforcement rate when interresponse-time reinforcement is eliminated may be underestimated.

Possible


Definition:

  • (a.) Capable of existing or occurring, or of being conceived or thought of; able to happen; capable of being done; not contrary to the nature of things; -- sometimes used to express extreme improbability; barely able to be, or to come to pass; as, possibly he is honest, as it is possible that Judas meant no wrong.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) However, as other patients who lived at the periphery of the Valserine valley do not appear to be related to any patients living in the valley, and because there has been considerable immigration into the valley, a number of hypotheses to explain the distribution of the disease in the region remain possible.
  • (2) Standardization is possible after correction by the protein content of each individual section.
  • (3) The significance of minor increases in the serum creatinine level must be recognized, so that modifications of drug therapy can be made and correction of possibly life-threatening electrolyte imbalances can be undertaken.
  • (4) The possibility that the ventral nerve photoreceptor cells serve a neurosecretory function in the adult Limulus is discussed.
  • (5) In Patient 2 they were at first paroxysmal and unformed, with more prolonged metamorphopsia; later there appeared to be palinoptic formed images, possibly postictal in nature.
  • (6) However, medicines have an important part to play, and it is now generally agreed that for the very poor populations medicines should be restricted to those on an 'essential drugs list' and should be made available as cheaply as possible.
  • (7) The various evocational changes appear to form sets of interconnected systems and this complex network seems to embody some plasticity since it has been possible to suppress experimentally some of the most universal evocational events or alter their temporal order without impairing evocation itself.
  • (8) Coronary arteritis has to be considered as a possible etiology of ischemic symptoms also in subjects who appear affected by typical atherosclerotic ischemic heart disease.
  • (9) This induction is sensitive to actinomycin D but not to protein synthesis inhibitor puromycin, indicating an effect of estradiol at the transcriptional level, possibly mediated by the estrogen receptor.
  • (10) This new observation offers good possibilities to study the metabolism of tryptophan at the cellular level.
  • (11) From these data it is possible to predict theoretically the apparent temperature difference as seen by an infrared scanner or radiometer with a detector of which the spectral detectivity, D (lambda), is known.
  • (12) This is a fascinating possibility for solving the skin shortage problem especially in burn cases.
  • (13) Since 1987, it has become possible to obtain immature ova from the living animal and to let them mature, fertilize and develop into embryos capable of transplantation outside the body.
  • (14) These cells contained organelles characteristic of the maturation stage ameloblast and often extended to the enamel surface, suggesting a possible origin from the ameloblast layer.
  • (15) Four cytotoxic antibiotics, bikaverin, duclauxine, PSX-1 and vermiculine, were examined with respect to their interference with glycolysis and respiration and their possible ionophoric or cytolytic activity.
  • (16) These results are discussed in relation to the possible existence of enzyme-bound intermediates of nitrogen fixation.
  • (17) For viewers in the US, you get the worst possible in-game managerial interview in Mike Matheny, one that's so bad, it's actually great!
  • (18) A possible role for mitochondria in myocardial adenosine production is discussed.
  • (19) Together these observations suggest that cytotactin is an endogenous cell surface modulatory protein and provide a possible mechanism whereby cytotactin may contribute to pattern formation during development, regeneration, tumorigenesis, and wound healing.
  • (20) Results suggest that Cd-MT is reabsorbed and broken down by kidney tubule cells in a physiological manner with possible subsequent release of the toxic cadmium ion.