The phrase "actually merely" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to emphasize that something is not more than what it appears to be, often in a context of clarification or simplification.
Example: "The project is actually merely a prototype, not the final product."
Alternatives: "simply just" or "really only".
So it may be that the things we think of as part of a previous era's monoculture were actually merely popular at the time.
Since Twitter itself reports that 90% of users already use official Twitter apps (Mashable contests this figure, saying it's actually merely 58%), it may seem like no big deal if that other 10% will see their alternatives contract.
Benicio Del Toro does heroic work as Jimmy Picard by emphasizing the character's distinctive way of speaking; he renders the glottal stops of Picard's Blackfoot language into English, rendering the English halting and lurching, easily mistaken for sluggish or unsure but actually merely accented.
City had beaten Spurs 6-0 athehEtihadad Stadium a little over three weeks ago and, while the comprehensive nature of that defeat had been shocking, it actually merely served to expose deeper concerns within the club's boardroom over the manager's position.
The usual reference to broad societal discussion is well intended and sounds correct, but actually merely adds to vagueness on where decisions are made and by whom.
However, in the end the result of this procedure turns out to be quite trivial from a mathematical perspective: "It actually merely leads to a simplification of the method known as the "Sieve of Eratosthenes" already being practiced for more than 2000 years" (Ehrenfels 1922, 48).
(That is why many managers treat scores of 5 or 6 on 10-point and 11-point satisfaction/recommend intention scales as dissatisfied, even though they are actually really "merely" satisfied there would be very little opportunity at the bottom end of the scale otherwise).
I want to write back to Samantha to make it clear that I'm not looking for any further involvement in her life but actually and merely asking for a one-time administrative courtesy.
After a trip there is a normal process of memory collapse — but memories are not actually lost, merely filed.
(Actually, Yosra merely requested I disinclude her, but I'll assume she'd want the same courtesy extended to others).
Dessaud et al. 37 showed that it is actually not merely the concentration of Shh determining cell fate, but the cumulative level and duration of Shh signaling, and thus the integral of the signaling response.
