English Explanatory Dictionary

ACT

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. Initialism of the Australian Capital Territory: a federal territory of Australia.
  2. Initialism of American College Test.
  3. Initialism of Association of Consumers and Taxpayers, a political party of New Zealand.
  4. ACT New Zealand, a liberal conservative political party in New Zealand.
noun
  1. An instance of a certain standardized college admissions test in the United States, originally called the American College Test.
  2. Acronym of acceptance and commitment therapy.
noun
  1. Something done, a deed.
  2. Actuality.
  3. Something done once and for all, as distinguished from a work.
  4. A product of a legislative body, a statute.
  5. (In the United States) A legislative proposal, a bill that has not yet become law.
  6. The process of doing something.
  7. A formal or official record of something done.
  8. A division of a theatrical performance.
  9. A performer or performers in a show.
  10. Any organized activity.
  11. A display of behaviour.
  12. A display of behaviour meant to deceive.
verb
  1. To do something.
  2. To do (something); to perform.
  3. To perform a theatrical role.
  4. Of a play: to be acted out (well or badly).
  5. To behave in a certain manner for an indefinite length of time.
  6. To convey an appearance of being.
  7. To do something that causes a change binding on the doer.
  8. To have an effect (on).
  9. To play (a role).
  10. To feign.
  11. To carry out work as a legal representative in relation to a particular legal matter.
  12. 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.
adv
  1. Clipping of actually.
noun
  1. Ellipsis of Act of Parliament.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ACT (test).wav /ækt/ [ækt] ăkt [akt] /æk/ en-us-act.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-act.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-act.wav

Word forms

ACT A.C.T. A. C. T. ACTs acting acted no-table-tags glossary actest actedst acteth more act most act

Etymology

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”).

Synonyms

pretense deed statute

Related words

action active agency agent activate deactivate

Derived words

acteme acter actless act of adjournal act of attainder act of Congress act of darkness act of faith act of god act of independent significance act of parliament act of sederunt act of settlement act of terrorism act of war Acts of the Apostles anteact Baker Act balancing act caught in the act class act clean up one's act cyberact disappearing act double act drag act Dutch act Enabling Act final act generative act get in on the act get into the act get one's act together Hague Invasion Act hard act to follow have one's act together illocutionary act in the act juggling act juridical act juristic act keep an act Marchman Act model act multiact nonact novelty act nuptial act one-act postact random act of kindness read someone the riot act revenue act second act sex act sexual act sister act speech act stamp act support act

Translations

Albanian: veprimtaria Finnish: näytös French: acte German: Spiel German: Auftreten German: Handeln Greek: πράξη Hindi: व्यवहार Italian: scena Italian: messinscena Northern Kurdish: perde Luxembourgish: Nummer Luxembourgish: Programm Malay: pura-pura Malayalam: അഭിനയം Portuguese: ato Russian: игра́ Russian: притво́рство Slovak: divadlo Lower Sorbian: jadnanje Swahili: tenda Tamil: நடிப்பு
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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