act
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: ăkt
ipa: /ækt/
ipa: [ækt]
ipa: [akt]
ipa: /æk/
rhymes: -ækt
Forms: form: acts
Etymology: 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”).
Senses: examples: text: an act of goodwill
text: That best portion of a good man's life, / His little, nameless, unremembered acts / Of kindness and of love.
ref: 1798, William Wordsworth, Lines:
glosses: Something done, a deed.
examples: text: The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be.
ref: 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):
glosses: Actuality.
topics: lifestyle
religion
theology
glosses: Something done once and for all, as distinguished from a work.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2012 March 23, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:
topics: law
glosses: A product of a legislative body, a statute.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2021 February 4, Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, Lynn Rhinehart, “How the PRO Act restores workers' rights to unionize”, in Economic Policy Institute:
topics: law
glosses: (In the United States) A legislative proposal, a bill that has not yet become law.
examples: text: He was caught in the act of stealing.
glosses: The process of doing something.
glosses: A formal or official record of something done.
examples: text: “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. […]”
ref: 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:
text: The pivotal moment in the play was in the first scene of the second act.
topics: broadcasting
drama
dramaturgy
entertainment
film
lifestyle
media
television
theater
glosses: A division of a theatrical performance.
examples: text: Which act did you prefer? The soloist or the band?
glosses: A performer or performers in a show.
examples: text: The minute you let it be known you're planning a sales campaign everybody wants to get into the act.
ref: 1934, Babette Hughes, One egg: a farce in one act, page 46:
glosses: Any organized activity.
glosses: A display of behaviour.
examples: text: to put on an act
text: 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"
ref: 2023 September 15, Tate McRae, Amy Allen, Jasper Harris, Ryan Tedder, “Greedy”, in Think Later, performed by Tate McRae:
glosses: A display of behaviour.
A display of behaviour meant to deceive.
glosses: A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
topics: law
glosses: Ellipsis of act of parliament.
Synonyms: sense: something done
word: deed
word: action
sense: product of a legislative body
word: statute
sense: display of behavior
word: pretense
Meronyms: topics: drama
dramaturgy
film
theater
entertainment
lifestyle
television
broadcasting
media
word: scene
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
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
third-act breakup
tough act to follow
tribute act
uniform act
Related terms: action
active
agency
agent