ACT

noun

Synonyms

See Action.

Definitions

  1. 1. That which is done or doing; the exercise of power, or the effect, of which power exerted is the cause; a performance; a deed. That best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love. Wordsworth. Hence, in specific uses:
  2. 2. The result of public deliberation; the decision or determination of a legislative body, council, court of justice, etc.; a decree, edit, law, judgment, resolve, award; as, an act of Parliament, or of Congress.
  3. 3. A formal solemn writing, expressing that something has been done. Abbott.
  4. 4. A performance of part of a play; one of the principal divisions of a play or dramatic work in which a certain definite part of the action is completed.
  5. 5. A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
  6. 6. A state of reality or real existence as opposed to a possibility or possible existence. [Obs.] The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be. Hooker.
  7. 7. Process of doing; action. In act, in the very doing; on the point of (doing). "In act to shoot." Dryden. This woman was taken . . . in the very act. John viii. 4. Act of attainder. (Law) See Attainder. -- Act of bankruptcy (Law), an act of a debtor which renders him liable to be adjudged a bankrupt. -- Act of faith. (Ch. Hist.) See Auto-da-Fé. -- Act of God (Law), an inevitable accident; such extraordinary interruption of the usual course of events as is not to be looked for in advance, and against which ordinary prudence could not guard. -- Act of grace, an expression often used to designate an act declaring pardon or amnesty to numerous offenders, as at the beginning of a new reign. -- Act of indemnity, a statute passed for the protection of those who have committed some illegal act subjecting them to penalties. Abbott. -- Act in pais, a thing done out of court (anciently, in the country), and not a matter of record.

Other Definitions

This word also has another definition:
Added: October 09, 2025 Updated: October 09, 2025
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