Wiktionary

act

See also: ACT, Act, act., Act., A.C.T., and A. C. T.

Translingual

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Symbol

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act

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Achterhooks.

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-eti
Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti
Proto-Italic *agō
Latin agō
Latin ācta
Old French actbor.
Middle English acte
English act

    From Middle English acte, from Old French acte, from Latin ācta (“register of events”), plural of āctum (“decree, law”), from agere (“to do, to act”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti. Compare German Akte (“file”). Partially displaced deed, from Old English dǣd (“act, deed”).

    Noun

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    act (countable and uncountable, plural acts)

    1. (countable) Something done, a deed.
      an act of goodwill
      • 1798, William Wordsworth, Lines:
        That best portion of a good man's life, / His little, nameless, unremembered acts / Of kindness and of love.
    2. (obsolete, uncountable) Actuality.
      • [1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):
        The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be.
    3. (theology) Something done once and for all, as distinguished from a work.
    4. (law, countable) A product of a legislative body, a statute.
      • 2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist‎[2], 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.
    5. (law, countable) (In the United States) A legislative proposal, a bill that has not yet become law.
      • 2021 February 4, Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, Lynn Rhinehart, “How the PRO Act restores workers' rights to unionize”, in Economic Policy Institute‎[3]:
        Under current law, employers can drag out the union election process... Under the PRO Act, workers and the NLRB set union election procedures. The employer is not involved.
    6. The process of doing something.
      He was caught in the act of stealing.
    7. (countable) A formal or official record of something done.
    9. (countable, drama) A division of a theatrical performance.
      • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
        “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.
    10. (countable) A performer or performers in a show.
      Which act did you prefer? The soloist or the band?
    11. (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.
    12. (countable) A display of behaviour.
      1. (countable) A display of behaviour meant to deceive.
        to put on an act
    13. A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
    15. (law) Ellipsis of act of parliament.
    16. (European Union law, semi-informal) a regulation (see Usage notes)
    Usage notes
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    • (EU regulation:) The European Union increasingly uses the term act in the short titles[1] of its largest regulations, despite the fact that the legally binding term for the legislative act is regulation (e.g. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 = Artificial Intelligence Act).
    Synonyms
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    Meronyms
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    Holonyms
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    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    Verb

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    act (third-person singular simple present acts, present participle acting, simple past and past participle acted)

    1. (intransitive) To do something.
      If you don’t act soon, you will be in trouble.
    2. (obsolete, transitive) To do (something); to perform.
      • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Signes of Purity of Intention”, in The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC, page 23:
        that we act our temporal affairs with a deſire no greater than our neceſſity
      • a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number)”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831, →OCLC:
        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.
    3. (intransitive) To perform a theatrical role.
      I started acting at the age of eleven in my local theatre.
    4. (intransitive) Of a play: to be acted out (well or badly).
      • 2011, Effiong Johnson, Play Production Processes, page 180:
        But whatever types he assumes, the need to have a good play which acts delightfully well before the audience, and to their delectation, is the dominant thrust. If the play acts well, the director gets the credits.
    5. (intransitive) To behave in a certain manner for an indefinite length of time.
      A dog which acts aggressively is likely to bite.
      I believe that Bill’s stuck-up because of the way that he acts.
      He’s acting strangely—I think there’s something wrong with him.
    6. (copulative) To convey an appearance of being.
      He acted unconcerned so the others wouldn’t worry.
    7. (intransitive) To do something that causes a change binding on the doer.
      act on behalf of John
    8. (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.
    9. (transitive) To play (a role).
      He’s been acting Shakespearean leads since he was twelve.
    10. (transitive) To feign.
      He acted the angry parent, but was secretly amused.
      • 1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
        With acted fear the villain thus pursued.
    11. (intransitive, law) To carry out work as a legal representative in relation to a particular legal matter.
      A lawyer cannot act until they have been formally instructed by their client.
    12. (intransitive, mathematics, construed with on or upon, of an algebraic structure) To possess an action onto (some other structure). Examples include the group action of a group on a set, the action of a ring on a module by scalar multiplication, and the action of a group or algebra on a vector space via a representation.
      This group acts on the circle, so it can't be left-orderable!
    13. (obsolete, transitive) To move to action; to actuate; to animate.
    14. (obsolete, Scotland, transitive) To enact; to decree.[2]
    Conjugation
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    Conjugation of act
    infinitive (to) act
    present tense past tense
    1st-person singular act acted
    2nd-person singular act, actest† acted, actedst†
    3rd-person singular acts, acteth† acted
    plural act
    subjunctive act acted
    imperative act —
    participles acting acted

    † Archaic or obsolete.

    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    Etymology 2

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    Clipping of actually.

    Adverb

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    act (comparative more act, superlative most act)

    1. (text messaging) Clipping of actually.
      james did u act enjoy that juice? looked like u were gagging icl

    References

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    • “act”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
    1. ^ Svobodová, Magdaléna (2024), “'ACTS' AND 'LAWS' OF THE EUROPEAN UNION: A STEP TOWARDS THE FEDERALISATION OF THE EU?”, in The Lawyer Quarterly‎[1], volume 14, number 1 (PDF), The Institute of the State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences, →ISSN, retrieved 11 April 2026, page 53
    2. ^ “act, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

    Anagrams

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    Middle English

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    Noun

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    act

    1. alternative form of acte

    Old Irish

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    Conjunction

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    act

    1. alternative spelling of acht (“but”)

    Romanian

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    Etymology

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    Borrowed from French acte, from Latin actus.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    act n (plural acte)

    1. act, deed, action

    Declension

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    singular plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative-accusative act actul acte actele
    genitive-dative act actului acte actelor
    vocative actule actelor
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    See also

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    Further reading

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    Scots

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    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    act (plural acts)

    1. an act

    Verb

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    act (third-person singular simple present acts, present participle actin, simple past and past participle actit)

    1. act
    2. enact
    3. decree

    References

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    Welsh

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    Etymology

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    From English act.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    act f (plural actau)

    1. act

    Derived terms

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    Mutation

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    Mutated forms of act
    radical soft nasal h-prothesis
    act unchanged unchanged hact

    Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
    All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

    References

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    <refrences/>

    Further reading

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    • 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
    Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=act&oldid=90402543"