Actress

How to spell actress

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce actress

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does actress mean?

1. nounA woman or girl who performs a role in a play, film, or television production.

Actress in a sentence

• The lead actress rehearsed her lines until midnight.

• A veteran actress joined the cast for the final season.

Where does actress come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word builds on 'actor', which English took directly from Latin, where actor meant 'a doer' or 'an agent', from the verb agere meaning 'to do, drive, or set in motion'. The same agere root quietly powers a whole family of English words, including 'action', 'agent', 'agile', and 'agenda'. To mark a female performer, English added the suffix -ess, which came in through Old French -esse and traces back through Latin to the Greek feminine ending -issa. Actor was used of stage performers from the late 1500s, and 'actress' followed in the early 1600s once women were permitted to appear on the English stage. The spelling trap lies entirely in that ending: the single 't' of 'act' meets the agent 'r' and then the doubled 's' of -ess, so writers must remember it finishes -tress, not -tres or -tess.

How the word is built

• act (from Latin agere: to do, perform)
• -r- (agent element from 'actor')
• -ess (feminine noun suffix)