act

Meanings

Noun

• Something done, a deed.
• Actuality.
• Something done once and for all, as distinguished from a work.
• A product of a legislative body, a statute.
• The process of doing something.
• A formal or official record of something done.
• A division of a theatrical performance.
• A performer or performers in a show.
• Any organized activity.
• A display of behaviour.
• A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
• A display of behaviour meant to deceive.

Verb

• To do something.
• To do (something); to perform.
• To perform a theatrical role.
• Of a play: to be acted out (well or badly).
• To behave in a certain manner for an indefinite length of time.
• To convey an appearance of being.
• To do something that causes a change binding on the doer.
• To have an effect (on).
• To play (a role).
• To feign.
• To map via a homomorphism to a group of automorphisms (of).
• To move to action; to actuate; to animate.
• To enact, decree.

Related

Similar words

• statute
• pretense

Origin

• From Middle English acte, from Old French acte, from Latin ācta ("register of events"), plural of āctum, from ago, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti. Compare German Akte ("file"). Partially displaced deed, from Old English dǣd ("act, deed").