# act
## Translingual
### Symbol

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

## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: ăkt, IPA: /ækt/
** (Received Pronunciation, US, General Australian) IPA: [ækt]
** (Canada, Standard Southern British, Northern England) IPA: [akt]
* (AAVE) IPA: /æk/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ækt

### Etymology 1

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

act (countable and uncountable, plural acts)
* (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.
* (obsolete, uncountable) Actuality.
** 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be.
* (theology) Something done once and for all, as distinguished from a work.
* (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, 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.
* (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: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.
* The process of doing something.
    He was caught in the act of stealing.
* (countable) A formal or official record of something done.
* (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.
* (countable) A performer or performers in a show.
    Which act did you prefer? The soloist or the band?
* (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.
* (countable) A display of behaviour.
** (countable) A display of behaviour meant to deceive.
    to put on an act
*** 2023 September 15, Tate McRae, Amy Allen, Jasper Harris, Ryan Tedder, “Greedy”, in Think Later‎, performed by Tate McRae:He said, "I'm just curious, is this for real or just an act? / Can't tell if you love or hate me, never met someone like that"
* A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
* (law) Ellipsis of act of parliament.

##### Synonyms

* (something done): deed; see also Thesaurus:action
* (product of a legislative body): statute
* (display of behavior): pretense

##### Meronyms

* (drama): scene

##### Holonyms

* (drama): play

##### Derived terms

* acteme
* acter
* actless
* act of adjournal
* act of attainder
* act of Congress
* act of darkness
* act of faith
* act of god, 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
* coact
* cyberact
* disappearing act
* double act
* drag act
* Dutch act
* Enabling 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
* 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
* tough act to follow
* tribute act
* uniform act

##### Related terms

* action
* active
* agency
* agent

##### Translations

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

#### Verb

act (third-person singular simple present acts, present participle acting, simple past and past participle acted)
* (intransitive) To do something.
    If you don’t act soon, you will be in trouble.
* (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). Of Industry in General”, 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.
* (intransitive) To perform a theatrical role.
    I started acting at the age of eleven in my local theatre.
* (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.
* (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.
* (copulative) To convey an appearance of being.
    He acted unconcerned so the others wouldn’t worry.
* (intransitive) To do something that causes a change binding on the doer.
    act on behalf of John
* (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.
* (transitive) To play (a role).
    He’s been acting Shakespearean leads since he was twelve.
* (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.
* (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.
* (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!
* (obsolete, transitive) To move to action; to actuate; to animate.
** 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul.
* (obsolete, Scotland, transitive) To enact; to decree.

##### Conjugation

$^†$ Archaic or obsolete.

##### Derived terms

* actability
* actable
* act a fool
* act chicken
* act like a bull in a china shop
* act on
* act one's age
* actor
* act out
* act possum
* actress
* act smart
* act the fool
* act the giddy goat
* act the goat
* act the hypocrite
* act the jennet
* act the maggot
* act up
* act upon
* autoreact
* backreact
* co-act
* coact
* counteract
* crossreact
* enact
* interact
* interreact
* misact
* outact
* overact
* overreact
* play-act
* preact
* proact
* react
* retroact
* underact
* underreact
* watch and act

##### Related terms

* action
* activate
* active
* deactivate

##### Translations

Afrikaans: doen (af)
American Sign Language: C@SideTrunkhigh-PalmDown-C@SideTrunkhigh-PalmDown RoundVertSidetoside-RoundVertSidetoside
Asturian: actuar
Azerbaijani: hərəkət etmək
Bashkir: эшләү (eşləw), ҡылыу (qılıw)
Belarusian: дзе́йнічаць impf (dzjéjničacʹ), падзе́йнічаць impf (padzjéjničacʹ)
Bulgarian: пра́вя (bg) impf (právja), въ́рша (bg) impf (vǎ́rša)
Catalan: actuar (ca)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 做 (zou$^6$)
Mandarin: 行動 / 行动 (zh) (xíngdòng), 做 (zh) (zuò), 作 (zh) (zuò)
Cornish: gwari, oberi
Czech: dělat (cs) impf, konat (cs) impf
Danish: handle (da), agere
Dutch: handelen (nl)
Egyptian: (jrj)
Esperanto: agi (eo), aktori
Finnish: tehdä (fi), toimia (fi)
French: agir (fr), faire (fr)
Galician: actuar (gl)
Georgian: ქმედება (kmedeba)
German: handeln (de), tun (de), machen (de)
Greek: πράττω (el) (prátto), ενεργώ (el) (energó), δρω (el) (dro)
Hawaiian: please add this translation if you can
Hindi: कर्म (hi) m (karm)
Hungarian: cselekszik (hu)
Italian: agire (it)
Japanese: 行動する (ja) (こうどうする, kōdō suru)
Kabuverdianu: aji, ají
Korean: 행동하다 (ko) (haengdonghada)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: kirin (ku)
Latin: ago (la), gero (la), facio (la)
Luxembourgish: agéieren, handelen, doen (lb)
Malay: tindak (ms)
Malayalam: പ്രവർത്തിക്കുക (ml) (pravaṟttikkuka)
Maori: whakahohe
Nepali: गर्नु (ne) (garnu)
Occitan: agir (oc)
Old English: dōn
Persian: کردن (fa) (kardan)
Polish: działać (pl) impf, zdziałać pf, robić (pl) impf zrobić (pl) pf
Portuguese: agir (pt)
Romanian: acționa (ro)
Russian: де́йствовать (ru) (déjstvovatʹ), поступа́ть (ru) (postupátʹ), де́лать (ru) (délatʹ)
Slovak: konať (sk) impf, robiť (sk) impf
Slovene: delovati impf, ravnati impf
Spanish: actuar (es)
Swahili: tenda (sw)
Swedish: handla (sv), agera (sv)
Ukrainian: ді́яти (uk) impf (díjaty), чини́ти impf (čynýty)
Volapük: dunön (vo)
Welsh: actio (cy) :
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Etymology 2

Clipping of actually.

#### Adverb

act (comparative more act, superlative most act)
* (text messaging) Clipping of actually.
    james did u act enjoy that juice? looked like u were gagging icl

### References

* “act”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* ↑ “act, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* CTA, cat, Cat, TAC, CAT, ATC, tac, cat-, TCA

## Middle English
### Noun

act
* Alternative form of acte

## Old Irish
### Conjunction

act
* Alternative spelling of acht (“but”)

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French acte, from Latin actus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /akt/

### Noun

act n (plural acte)
* act, deed, action

#### Related terms

* acțiune

#### See also

* fapt, faptă
* lucru

### Further reading

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

## Scots
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ak(t)/

### Noun

act (plural acts)
* an act

### Verb

act (third-person singular simple present acts, present participle actin, simple past actit, past participle actit)
* act
* enact
* decree

### References

* Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

## Welsh
### Etymology

From English act.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /akt/

### Noun

act f (plural actau)
* act

#### Derived terms

* Actau'r Apostolion (“the Acts of the Apostles”)
* actio (“to act”)
* actor (“actor”)
* actores (“actress”)

### Mutation

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

### Further reading

* 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