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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

acting.

Temporarily assuming the duties or authority of another person when they are unable to do their job.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈæk.tɪŋ/

  1. Temporarily assuming the duties or authority of another person when they are unable to do their job.

    not-comparable
    The Acting Minister must sign Executive Council documents in a Minister's absence.
    The CEO is currently in a hospital. The CFO is acting CEO in the meantime.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti Proto-Italic *agō Latin agō Latin ācta Old French actbor. Middle English acte English act English -ing English acting From act + -ing.

noun/ˈæk.tɪŋ/

  1. An action or deed.

    archaic · countable

  2. Something done by a party—so called to avoid confusion with the legal senses of deed and action.

    countable

  3. Pretending.

    uncountable

  4. The occupation of an actor.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti Proto-Italic *agō Latin agō Latin ācta Old French actbor. Middle English acte English act English -ing English acting From act + -ing.

verb/ˈæk.tɪŋ/

  1. present participle and gerund of act

    form-of · gerund · participle · present
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti Proto-Italic *agō Latin agō Latin ācta Old French actbor. Middle English acte English act English -ing English acting From act + -ing.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.