From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishin (actual) factin (actual) facta) IN FACTused when you are adding something, especially something surprising, to emphasize what you have just said I know the mayor really well. In fact, I had dinner with her last week. b) IN FACTused to emphasize that the truth about a situation is the opposite of what has been mentioned They told me it would be cheap but in fact it cost me nearly $500. Her teachers said she was a slow learner, whereas in actual fact she was partially deaf. → fact
Examples from the Corpus
in (actual) fact• Miss Ashley had in fact, except as regards changing her birth certificate, overcome all these obstacles to acceptance.• For that very denial had, in fact, given me far more.• Development time is, in fact, he says, cut from years to months.• He did not in fact inherit the title until 1705, but a love of hunting he certainly did.• In other respects they are rather mysterious - more so in fact than seems to have been widely realized.• I never did that in fact ... I went into filming, straight away.• The result was a wonderful success for Wren, for the garden planners and for Carteron himself-a triumph, in fact.• When the smell was pure oak, I remembered childhood woods; in fact one particular place in one particular wood. 