What's the difference between actually and literally?

Actually


Definition:

  • (adv.) Actively.
  • (adv.) In act or in fact; really; in truth; positively.

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.

Literally


Definition:

  • (adv.) According to the primary and natural import of words; not figuratively; as, a man and his wife can not be literally one flesh.
  • (adv.) With close adherence to words; word by word.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) They are just literally lying.” In August Microsoft severed its ties, saying Alec’s stance on climate change and several other issues “conflicted directly with Microsoft’s values”.
  • (2) Estimated fluid consumption dropped from 10 liters to 4 liters daily and incidents of hyponatremia decreased by 62%.
  • (3) Resting plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine levels were 13.1 and 2.1 nmol liter-1 for the marine toad (Bufo marinus).
  • (4) And we literally had hundreds of thousands of them."
  • (5) Standard additions are unnecessary; Pt concentrations are read from a calibration chart of peak heights, which is linear up to 1.6 mg per liter.
  • (6) Communication issues in obtaining organ donation consent were examined, with particular focus on what are literally life-and-death decisions.
  • (7) It could still be terrorism but it looks as if the aircraft went out of control because the controls were literally burning up.
  • (8) A novel vector was employed which permits rapid and highly efficient cleavage of the GST fusion protein yielding 10 mg of purified PurH product per liter of bacterial culture.
  • (9) You literally never see that at political rallies, though obviously at Tea Party ones they are there all the time."
  • (10) An empirical rate expression was developed from experimental data which led to a prediction that the natural rate of oxidation in the ocean is about 0.023 micromoles of As(III) per liter each year.
  • (11) A technology for preparation of purified concentrates of rabies virus has been developed permitting to use simultaneously dozens of liters of tissue culture virus-containing fluid for the preparation of a concentrate.
  • (12) The maximum effect was obtained with 10(-7) molar gibberellic acid, whereas concentrations greater than 5 x 10(-7) mole per liter were inhibitory.
  • (13) Years ahead of its time, it saw each song presented theatrically, the musicians concealed in the wings (although Bowie said that they kept creeping on to the stage, literally unable to resist the spotlight) and with Bowie performing on a cherry-picker and on a giant hand, both of which kept breaking down.
  • (14) Some women attended the protest wearing jeans and T-shirts, while others took the mission of reclaiming the word "slut" – one of the stated objectives of the movement – more literally and turned out in overtly provocative fishnets and stilettos.
  • (15) But nobody got the reference and "the next day it was literally on CNN".
  • (16) 1.57pm BST Lap 36: Punchy stuff from Jules Bianchi up to 13th, literally bumping his way through Kobayashi on the inside.
  • (17) The majority of children came from low socio-economic homes (61%) with mostly illiterate or semi-literate mothers.
  • (18) As compared with the normoglycemic patients, the patients with hypoglycemia had elevated median plasma concentrations of glucagon (44 vs. 11 pmol per liter; P = 0.001), epinephrine (3400 vs. 1500 pmol per liter; P = 0.012), norepinephrine (7500 vs. 2900 pmol per liter; P = 0.002), and lactate (3.5 vs. 2.1 mmol per liter; P = 0.020) and similar alanine and beta-hydroxybutyrate concentrations.
  • (19) Finally, poliovirus experimentally seeded in 20 liters of tape water was recovered from Johns-Manville D79-Johns-Manville D39 or Johns-Manville D79-Filterite 0.45 micron 142-mm filter combinations was a efficiencies of 86 and 85%, respectively.
  • (20) Results concerning existence and uniqueness of equilibria, stability of the equilibria, and boundedness of solutions suggest that "compensatory" systems might not be compensatory in the literal sense.