Actor

//ˈak.tə(ɹ)// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Someone who institutes a legal suit; a plaintiff or complainant. obsolete
  2. 2
    a theatrical performer wordnet
  3. 3
    Someone acting on behalf of someone else; a guardian. obsolete
  4. 4
    a person who acts and gets things done wordnet
  5. 5
    Someone or something that takes part in some action; a doer, an agent.

    "A man may be principal in an offence in two degrees. A principal, in the first degree, is he that is the actor, or absolute perpetrator of the crime; and, in the second degree, he who is present, aiding, and abetting the fact to be done."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    A person who acts a part in a theatrical play or (later) in film or television; a dramatic performer.

    "Seems like everyone's an actor / Or they're an actor's best friend / I wonder what was wrong to begin with / That they should all have to pretend"

  2. 7
    An advocate or proctor in civil courts or causes. Ancient-Rome, obsolete
  3. 8
    The subject performing the action of a verb.
  4. 9
    The entity that performs a role (in use case analysis).

Synonyms

All synonyms
doerdoerperformerplayerroleactress

Example

More examples

"The son of a great actor became a good actor in his own right."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English actour, from Anglo-Norman actor, Middle French actor, and their source, Latin āctor (“doer”), from agō (“to do”). Equivalent to act + -or. Cognate with Ancient Greek ἄκτωρ (áktōr, “leader”), from ἄγω (ágō, “lead, carry, convey, bring”).

Related phrases

actor-proofback actorbad actorcharacter actorchild actorcrisis actorlive actormethod actornon state actornon-state actornonstate actorplay-actor

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.