acter

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈæk.tə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈæk.tɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: actor
• Rhymes: -æktə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From act +‎ -er (“person or thing to which a certain number or measurement applies”).

Noun

acter (plural acters)

1. (in combination) A play or film with a particular number of acts.

   a one-acter

   a two-acter

Etymology 2

From act +‎ -er (forming agent nouns).

Noun

acter (plural acters)

1. (uncommon, nonstandard) An actor, someone who or something which acts.

Anagrams

• Carte, Trace, reäct, Certa, carte, crate, cater, caret, react, Cater, creat, trace, recta

French

Etymology

acte +‎ -er

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ak.te/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

acter

1. to enact
2. (figurative) to note, to take into account

   Synonyms: constater, prendre en compte

   • 2026 April 25, “Macron va-t-il vraiement s'éloigner de la politique ?”, in La Provence, page 22:

     […] confiant aussi au passage que le “plus dur” après neuf ans de pouvoir, c'était de défendre son bilan tout en sachant acter ce qu'il n'a pas “bien réussi”.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Conjugation

Conjugation of acter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	acter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	actant /ak.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		acté /ak.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	acte /akt/	actes /akt/	acte /akt/	actons /ak.tɔ̃/	actez /ak.te/	actent /akt/
	imperfect	actais /ak.tɛ/	actais /ak.tɛ/	actait /ak.tɛ/	actions /ak.tjɔ̃/	actiez /ak.tje/	actaient /ak.tɛ/
	past historic2	actai /ak.te/	actas /ak.ta/	acta /ak.ta/	actâmes /ak.tam/	actâtes /ak.tat/	actèrent /ak.tɛʁ/
	future	acterai /ak.tə.ʁe/	acteras /ak.tə.ʁa/	actera /ak.tə.ʁa/	acterons /ak.tə.ʁɔ̃/	acterez /ak.tə.ʁe/	acteront /ak.tə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	acterais /ak.tə.ʁɛ/	acterais /ak.tə.ʁɛ/	acterait /ak.tə.ʁɛ/	acterions /ak.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	acteriez /ak.tə.ʁje/	acteraient /ak.tə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	acte /akt/	actes /akt/	acte /akt/	actions /ak.tjɔ̃/	actiez /ak.tje/	actent /akt/
	imperfect2	actasse /ak.tas/	actasses /ak.tas/	actât /ak.ta/	actassions /ak.ta.sjɔ̃/	actassiez /ak.ta.sje/	actassent /ak.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	acte /akt/	—	actons /ak.tɔ̃/	actez /ak.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “acter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012