act
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Old French acte, from Latin ācta (“register of events”), plural of āctum (“decree, law”), from agō (“put in motion”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
act (countable and uncountable; plural acts)
- (countable) Something done, a deed.
- An act of good will.
- (obsolete, uncountable) Actuality.
- (countable) A product of a legislative body, a statute.
- 2012 March 1, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:
- But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.
- 2012 March 1, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:
- The process of doing something.
- He was caught in the act.
- (countable) A formal or official record of something done.
- (countable) A division of a theatrical performance.
- 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, The Lisson Grove Mystery[1]:
- “H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what [...] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”
- The pivotal moment in the play was in the first scene of the second act.
- 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, The Lisson Grove Mystery[1]:
- (countable) A performer or performers in a show.
- Which act did you prefer? The soloist or the band?
- (countable) Any organized activity.
- 1934, Babette Hughes, One egg: a farce in one act, page 46:
- The minute you let it be known you're planning a sales campaign everybody wants to get into the act.
- 1934, Babette Hughes, One egg: a farce in one act, page 46:
- (countable) A display of behaviour.
Synonyms[edit]
Meronyms[edit]
- (drama): scene
Holonyms[edit]
- (drama): play
Derived terms[edit]
terms derived from act (noun)
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
deed
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state of existence
statute
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process of doing
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formal record of something done
division of theatrical performance
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display of behaviour
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Verb[edit]
act (third-person singular simple present acts, present participle acting, simple past and past participle acted)
- (intransitive) To do something.
- If you don't act soon, you will be in trouble.
- (intransitive) To perform a theatrical role.
- I started acting at the age of eleven in my local theatre.
- (intransitive) To behave in a certain way.
- He's acting strangely - I think there's something wrong with him.
- (copulative) To convey an appearance of being.
- He acted unconcerned so the others wouldn't worry.
- (intransitive, construed with on or upon) To have an effect (on).
- High-pressure oxygen acts on the central nervous system and may cause convulsions or death.
- Gravitational force acts on heavy bodies.
- (transitive) To play (a role).
- He's been acting Shakespearean leads since he was twelve.
- (transitive) To feign.
- He acted the angry parent, but was secretly amused.
- (mathematics, intransitive, construed with on or upon, of a group) To map via a homomorphism to a group of automorphisms (of).
- This group acts on the circle, so it can't be left-orderable!
Derived terms[edit]
terms derived from act (verb)
Related terms[edit]
terms related to act (verb)
Translations[edit]
to do something
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to perform a theatrical role
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to behave in a certain way
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to respond to information
to have an effect on
to map to a group of automorphisms
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
