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say it: akt
act is a verb and noun meaning "perform an action, or work out or perform (an action)". It carries 15 recorded senses.
behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself
“You should act like an adult”
“Don't behave like a fool”
“What makes her do this way?”
“The dog acts ferocious, but he is really afraid of people”
have an effect or outcome; often the one desired or expected
“The voting process doesn't work as well as people thought”
“How does your idea work in practice?”
“This method doesn't work”
“The breaks of my new car act quickly”
“The medicine works only if you take it with a lot of water”
be engaged in an activity, often for no particular purpose other than pleasure
a legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society or legislative body
law
something that people do or cause to happen
a subdivision of a play or opera or ballet
a short performance that is part of a longer program
“he did his act three times every evening”
“she had a catchy little routine”
“it was one of the best numbers he ever did”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for act come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.