Acting

How to spell acting

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce acting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does acting mean?

1. nounThe art or profession of performing a role in a play, film, or other production.
2. adjectiveServing in a position temporarily until a permanent holder is appointed.

Acting in a sentence

• noun

  She studied acting at a respected drama school in London.

• adjective

  The deputy became acting manager while the director was abroad.

• noun

  His acting in the lead role earned widespread praise.

• adjective

  As acting head of department, she signed off the budget.

Where does acting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base of this word comes from the Latin agere, which meant 'to do, drive, or set in motion', and gave English the word 'act' through the Latin past participle actus. English took 'act' in the 1300s by way of Old French, first for a thing done and then for a section of a play. Adding the native English ending -ing produced 'acting', recorded from the 1500s, both as the noun naming the practice of performing a role and as an adjective describing someone who does a job for the time being. The same agere root branches into a huge family of everyday words, including agent, agile, agenda, and action. Because the spelling is built transparently from the familiar 'act' plus -ing, the word holds few surprises, though writers occasionally hesitate over whether to double the final consonant; since 'act' ends in a cluster, no doubling occurs.

How the word is built

• act (from Latin agere: to do, drive)
• -ing (forming noun/adjective)