as a matter of fact

English

Prepositional phrase

as a matter of fact

1. (adverbial) Actually, in fact.
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter V, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     The house of Ruthven was a small but ultra-modern limestone affair, between Madison and Fifth; a pocket-edition of the larger mansions of their friends, but with less excuse for the overelaboration since the dimensions were only twenty by a hundred. As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space the eyes might rest on […]."

   • 1977 May 25, 48:03 from the start, in Star Wars (Star Wars)‎^[1], episode IV (Science Fiction), Lucasfilm Ltd.:

     Greedo: Going somewhere, Solo? / Han Solo: Yes, Greedo. As a matter of fact, I was just going to see your boss. Tell Jabba that I've got his money.

   • 1992 May 3, “Comrade Bingo”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 6:

     R. Jeeves: An interesting theory, sir. Would you care to expatiate upon it?
     B.W. Wooster: As a matter of fact, no, Jeeves. The thought just occurred to me, as thoughts do.
     R. Jeeves: Very good, sir.

Usage notes

• As a matter of fact is often used to preface a statement that expands on the speaker's immediately previous claim, or exceeds it in its boldness.

  Gnomes are no larger than the children of our race. As a matter of fact, they're smaller.

  It's safe to say Mr. Chambers didn't benefit from the sale of his patents. As a matter of fact, he didn't see a single cent of the profits.

Synonyms

• in reality, really, truthfully, truth to tell; see also Thesaurus:actually

Translations

actually

• Arabic: فِي الْحَقِيقَة (fī l-ḥaqīqa)
• Bashkir: ысынлап та (ısınlap ta)
• Catalan: de fet, en realitat
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 事實上／事实上 (zh) (shìshíshàng), 其實／其实 (zh) (qíshí), 實際上／实际上 (zh) (shíjìshàng)

• Danish: faktisk
• Dutch: eigenlijk (nl), in werkelijkheid
• Esperanto: fakte
• Faroese: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: itse asiassa (fi)
• French: en fait (fr), à vrai dire (fr), en vérité (fr), en réalité (fr)
• Georgian: სიმანდვილეში (simandvileši), ფაქტობრივად (pakṭobrivad)
• German: tatsächlich (de), in Wirklichkeit, eigentlich (de)
• Greek: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: valójában (hu), ami azt illeti (hu)
• Icelandic: reyndar, frómt frá sagt, í raun og veru
• Irish: déanta na fírinne
• Italian: difatti (it), in realtà
• Japanese: 実は (ja) (jitsu-wa), 実際には (jissai-niwa)
• Korean: 사실은 (sasireun), 사실상 (ko) (sasilsang)
• Polish: właściwie (pl), w rzeczywistości (pl)
• Portuguese: na verdade, na realidade
• Russian: вообще́-то (ru) (voobščé-to), на са́мом де́ле (ru) (na sámom déle), в действи́тельности (ru) (v dejstvítelʹnosti)
• Slovak: pravdupovediac, vlastne
• Spanish: por cierto (es), sin ir más lejos, de hecho, a decir verdad, en verdad
• Swedish: faktum är att
• Yiddish: אייגנטלעך (eygntlekh)