Definitions and meaning of act
act
Etymology
From Middle English acte, from Old French acte, from Latin ācta (“register of events”), plural of āctum (“decree, law”), from agō (“put in motion”). Compare German Akte (“file”). Partially displaced deed, from Old English dǣd (“act, deed”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ækt/
- (AAVE) IPA(key): /æk/
-
- Rhymes: -ækt
Noun
act (countable and uncountable, plural acts)
- (countable) Something done, a deed.
- 1798, William Wordsworth, Lines
- That best portion of a good man's life, / His little, nameless, unremembered acts / Of kindness and of love.
- (obsolete, uncountable) Actuality.
- 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie
- The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be.
- (theology) Something done once and for all, as distinguished from a work.
- (countable) A product of a legislative body, a statute.
- The process of doing something.
- (countable) A formal or official record of something done.
- (countable, drama) A division of a theatrical performance.
- (countable) A performer or performers in a show.
- (countable) Any organized activity.
- (countable) A display of behaviour.
- A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
- (countable) A display of behaviour meant to deceive.
- to put on an act
Synonyms
- (something done): deed; see also Thesaurus:action
- (product of a legislative body): statute
- (display of behavior): pretense
Meronyms
Holonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
Verb
act (third-person singular simple present acts, present participle acting, simple past and past participle acted)
- (intransitive) To do something.
- (obsolete, transitive) To do (something); to perform.
- 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, Purity of Intention
- that we act our temporal affairs with a desire no greater than our necessity
- a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, Of Industry in General (sermon)
- Industry doth beget by producing good habits, and facility of acting things expedient for us to do.
- 1782, William Cowper, Expostulation
- Uplifted hands that at convenient times / Could act extortion and the worst of crimes.
- (intransitive) To perform a theatrical role.
- (intransitive) Of a play: to be acted out (well or badly).
- (intransitive) To behave in a certain manner for an indefinite length of time.
- (copulative) To convey an appearance of being.
- (intransitive) To do something that causes a change binding on the doer.
- (intransitive, construed with on or upon) To have an effect (on).
- (transitive) To play (a role).
- (transitive) To feign.
-
- With acted fear the villain thus pursued.
- (mathematics, intransitive, construed with on or upon, of a group) To map via a homomorphism to a group of automorphisms (of).
- (obsolete, transitive) To move to action; to actuate; to animate.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
Anagrams
- ATC, CAT, CTA, Cat, TAC, TCA, cat, tac
Old Irish
Conjunction
act
- Alternative spelling of acht (“but”)
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French acte, from Latin actus.
Noun
act n (plural acte)
- act, deed, action
Related terms
See also
Further reading
- act in DEX online - Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)
Scots
Pronunciation
Noun
act (plural acts)
- an act
Verb
act (third-person singular present acts, present participle actin, past actit, past participle actit)
- act
- enact
- decree
References
- Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.
Welsh
Etymology
From English act.
Pronunciation
Noun
act f (plural actau)
- act
Derived terms
- actio (“to act”)
- actor (“actor”)
- actores (“actress”)
Mutation
Further reading
- R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present) , “act”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
Source: wiktionary.org- to do something in a specified way.
(source: Collins Scrabble Dictionary)