# actor
## English
### Alternative forms

* acter (uncommon)
* actour (obsolete)

### Etymology

Inherited from Middle English actour, from Anglo-Norman actor, Middle French actor, and their source, Latin āctor (“doer”), from agō (“to do”). Equivalent to act +‎ -or. Cognate with Ancient Greek ἄκτωρ (áktōr, “leader”), from ἄγω (ágō, “lead, carry, convey, bring”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈak.tə/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈæk.tɚ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (UK):(file)
* Homophone: acter
* Rhymes: -æktə(ɹ)

### Noun

actor (plural actors)
* (obsolete, law) Someone who institutes a legal suit; a plaintiff or complainant. [13th–19th c.]
* (obsolete) Someone acting on behalf of someone else; a guardian. [14th–18th c.]
* Someone or something that takes part in some action; a doer, an agent. [from 15th c.]
** 1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 373:Never, my dear Bethel, did the most feverish dreams of fiction produce scenes more painful, or more terrific, than the real events to which I have been an actor, since the date of my last letter.
* A person who acts a part in a theatrical play or (later) in film or television; a dramatic performer. [from 16th c.]
** 1991, Ani DiFranco (lyrics and music), “Anticipate”, in Not So Soft:Seems like everyone's an actor / Or they're an actor's best friend / I wonder what was wrong to begin with / That they should all have to pretend
** 2017 April 2, “Marijuana”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 7, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:Exactly. Marijuana is something we just all gradually decided is okay, like Mark Wahlberg as a serious actor. “You know what? Sure, I’ve decided I’m fine with that.”
** 2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 88:"I'm an actress -- actor, as we have to say these days."
* (obsolete, Ancient Rome) An advocate or proctor in civil courts or causes. [16th–19th c.]
* (grammar) The subject performing the action of a verb. [from 18th c.]
* (software engineering) The entity that performs a role (in use case analysis).

#### Usage notes

* In the sense of a person who acts in a play or film, the traditional sense of the word only applied to male actors, the term actress being used for the female counterpart.

#### Synonyms

* (person who performs in a theatrical play or film): performer, player
* (one who acts): doer
* (one who takes part): participant
* (a plaintiff): complainant, plaintiff
* (entity performing a role in use case analysis): role

#### Antonyms

* (antonym(s) of “grammatical role”): undergoer

#### Hyponyms

* (person who performs in a theatrical play or film): actress
* enactor
* reenactor

#### Derived terms

* actorfic
* actorial
* actorine
* actorish
* actorism
* actorlike
* actorly
* actornaut
* actorness
* actor-proof
* actorship
* actory
* actroid
* back actor
* bad actor
* character actor
* child actor
* coactor
* crisis actor
* interactor
* live actor
* method actor
* nonactor
* non-state actor
* nonstate actor
* non state actor
* overactor
* play-actor
* self-actor
* spect-actor
* straight actor
* supporting actor
* threat actor
* underactor
* voice actor

#### Related terms

* act
* acting
* action
* actress
* actrix
* actual
* transaction

#### Descendants

* → Scottish Gaelic: actair
* → Welsh: actor

#### Translations

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

### Further reading

* “actor”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “actor”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “actor”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* Cator, Croat, Croat., carto-, rocta, taroc

## Asturian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin āctor.

### Noun

actor m (plural actores)
* actor

#### Related terms

* actriz

## Catalan
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin āctōrem.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [əkˈto]
* IPA: (Valencia) [akˈtoɾ]

### Noun

actor m (plural actors, feminine actora)
* (sociology) actor, agent (person who does an action)
* maker, author (e.g., of a law)
* (law) plaintiff
* (law) legal entity who is party to a contract

### Noun

actor m (plural actors, feminine actriu)
* (theater, film) actor

#### Related terms

* actuar

### Further reading

* “actor” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

## Dutch
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin āctor. Doublet of acteur.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɑk.tɔr/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: ac‧tor
* Rhymes: -ɑktɔr

### Noun

actor m (plural actores or actoren, diminutive actortje n)
* actor; agent, player (who has a part in some field of economical, social or other action, i.e., an active human factor)

#### Related terms

* acteur
* actie
* activiteit
* agenda
* agens
* ageren
* agitatie
* agitator
* reactor

## Galician
### Alternative forms

* ator (reintegrationist)

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /akˈtoɾ/ [ɑkˈt̪oɾ]
* Rhymes: -oɾ
* Hyphenation: ac‧tor

### Noun

actor m (plural actores, feminine actriz, feminine plural actrices)
* actor
    A acción revela o actor.The act reveals the actor

### Further reading

* “actor”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025
* Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “actor”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

## Latin
### Etymology

Agent noun formed from āctus +‎ -tor, perfect passive participle of agō (“do, act, make”).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈaːk.tor/, [ˈäːkt̪ɔr]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈak.tor/, [ˈäkt̪or]

### Noun

āctor m (genitive āctōris, feminine āctrīx); third declension
* doer, agent
* actor (person who performs in a theatrical play or movie)
* (law) prosecutor, plaintiff, advocate, orator

#### Declension

Third-declension noun.

#### Related terms

* āctiō
* āctrīx
* āctus
* agitō

#### Descendants

* → Asturian: actor
* → Catalan: actor
* → Middle English: actour
** English: actor
*** → Scottish Gaelic: actair
*** → Welsh: actor
* → Italian: attore
* → Middle French: acteur
** → Dutch: acteur
*** Afrikaans: akteur
*** → Indonesian: aktor
** French: acteur
*** → Norman: acteur
*** → Norwegian Bokmål: aktør
*** → Norwegian Nynorsk: aktør
*** → Russian: актёр (aktjór), актёръ (aktjór) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
**** → Azerbaijani: aktyor
**** → Bashkir: актёр (aktyor)
**** → Tajik: актёр (aktyor)
**** → Uzbek: aktyor
**** → Yiddish: אַקטיאָר (aktyor)
*** → Swedish: aktör
*** → Turkish: aktör
* → Occitan: actor
* → Old Galician-Portuguese: abtor, autor, outor (semi-learned)
** Galician: actor
** Portuguese: ator
* → Persian: بازیگر
* → Polish: aktor
* → Romanian: actor
* → Spanish: actor

### References

* “actor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “actor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* "actor", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* actor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. the actor who plays the leading part: actor primarum (secundarum, tertiarum) partium
* “actor”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎
* “actor”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “actor”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
* “actor”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

## Middle English
### Noun

actor
* Alternative form of actour

## Occitan
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin āctor.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /atˈtu/
* Audio (Béarn):(file)

### Noun

actor m (plural actors, feminine actritz, feminine plural actrises)
* actor

## Portuguese
### Noun

actor m (plural actores)
* Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1990 in Portugal) of ator. Still used in countries where the agreement hasn't come into effect; may occur as a sporadic misspelling.

## Romanian
### Alternative forms

* aftor — dated

### Etymology

Borrowed from French acteur, Latin āctor.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /akˈtor/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

actor m (plural actori, feminine equivalent actriță or actoriță)
* (acting) actor
    Synonyms: artist, interpret

#### Derived terms

* actoraș
* actoricesc
* actorie

### See also

* teatralist

### References

* actor in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

## Scots
### Etymology

Borrowed from English actor.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈaktər/

### Noun

actor (plural actors)
* actor

## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin āctor.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /aɡˈtoɾ/ [aɣ̞ˈt̪oɾ]
* Audio (Colombia):(file)
* Rhymes: -oɾ
* Syllabification: ac‧tor

### Noun

actor m (plural actores, feminine actriz, feminine plural actrices)
* actor (person who performs in a theatrical play or movie)

#### Derived terms

* actor de doblaje
* actor de voz
* actor porno

#### Related terms

* acción
* acto
* actoral
* actuar

### Noun

actor m (plural actores, feminine actora, feminine plural actoras)
* (law) defendant

### Further reading

* “actor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

### Anagrams

* corta
* tocar

## Welsh
### Etymology

Borrowed from English actor.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈaktɔr/
* Rhymes: -aktɔr

### Noun

actor m (plural actorion)
* (acting) actor

#### Coordinate terms

* (gender): actores (“actress, actor (female)”)

#### Related terms

* actio (“to act”)

### Mutation

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

### References

* R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “actor”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies