Wiktionary

acting

English

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Etymology

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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
English -ing
English acting

    From act + -ing.

    Pronunciation

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    • IPA(key): /ˈæk.tɪŋ/
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Rhymes: -æktɪŋ

    Adjective

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    acting (not comparable)

    1. Temporarily assuming the duties or authority of another person when they are unable to do their job.
      The Acting Minister must sign Executive Council documents in a Minister's absence.
      The CEO is currently in a hospital. The CFO is acting CEO in the meantime.
      • 2025 February 25, Kaitlan Collins and Tierney Sneed, “White House reveals who DOGE acting administrator is”, in CNN‎[1]:
        Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of the US DOGE Service, the agency that houses the temporary Department of Government Efficiency, a White House official told CNN on Tuesday.
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    Translations

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    See also

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    Verb

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    acting

    1. present participle and gerund of act

    Noun

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    acting (countable and uncountable, plural actings)

    1. (countable, now rare) An action or deed.
      • 1685, Herbert Croft, Some Animadversions upon a book intituled, The Theory of the Earth‎[2], London, Preface:
        […] he does so much magnifie Nature and her Actings in all this material World, as he gives just cause of suspicion that he hath made her a kind of joynt Deess with God in the Affairs thereof;
      • 1722, Daniel Defoe, “A Journal of the Plague Year”, in et al., London: E. Nutt, page 10:
        […] I desire this Account may pass with them, rather for a Direction to themselves to act by, than a History of my actings, seeing it may not be of one farthing value to them to note what became of me.
      • 1974, J. R. Jacob, “Robert Boyle and Subversive Religion in the Early Restoration”, in Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, volume 6, number 4, →JSTOR, page 276:
        Boyle’s theory explains the whole range of God’s actings in the world, those things that injure man as well as those which advantage him.
    2. (countable, law) Something done by a party—so called to avoid confusion with the legal senses of deed and action.
    3. (uncountable) Pretending.
    4. (uncountable, drama) The occupation of an actor.

    Derived terms

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    Translations

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    Anagrams

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    Chinese

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    Etymology

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    From English acting.

    Pronunciation

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    Verb

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    acting

    1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, intransitive, also rarely transitive) to act up; to temporarily assume duties or authorities of another person when they are unable to do their job
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