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Glite Dictionary
🎭 Performing roles 🕴️ Temporary substitute
acting

acting

3 3.7
Temporarily doing the job of the usual person
  • adjective
  • /ˈæktɪŋ/
translation icon : interino
  • Let me introduce our Acting Chief of Police... Commander... John Forrester.
  • Acting President

And Jeb Mcgruder was the acting boss of the committee to re elect the president.

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Examples

  • Ms. Anne Adams, Acting Chief Commissioner of the CHRC, noted the following:

    Academic text (2005)

  • At 11:30 a.m., when anesthesia began to be administered to the President, Vice President Bush became Acting President of the United States.

    Academic text (2014)

  • You are the Acting President of the United States.

    Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

  • And I, as Director General of the Security Service... Acting Director General.

    The Fourth Protocol (1987)

  • In each instance, Cheney became Acting President of the United States.

    Academic text (2014)

  • Michael M. Weinstein is Acting Director of the Geoeconomic Center and BP Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Fullerton Capt. and Acting Police Chief Dan Hughes made public Wednesday a list of police changes, which are posted on the city's website.

    Blog text (9)

  • "We have discussed a number of issues with the Acting Foreign Minister of Ethiopia related to the process of normalizing relations between the Republics of Sudan and South Sudan.

    Blog text (4)

  • The Acting Secretary of War, Benedict Crowell, quickly corrected this misconception, asserting that no such arrangements existed and all American citizens were ineligible to join the Polish Army.

    Academic text (1991)

  • You are the Acting President of the United States.

Synonyms

interim
vsacting
113 5.0

For a short time until a permanent solution or person is found

is about filling another's role temporarily rather than marking a brief time
substitutionary
vsacting
  • Formal
9.1

Doing a job, duty, or punishment instead of someone else

is temporary and specifically replaces someone in a position or office

Antonyms

permanent
650 3.2

Continuing for a long time and unlikely to change

substantive
  • Formal
88 6.3

Important and having real meaning or value

Idioms

to acting all tough
  • Informal
1 8.2

Pretending to be strong to impress others or hide fear

to acting like a prick
  • Offensive
9.9

To behave in a rude and hurtful way to other people

to acting like an assbutt
  • Offensive
9.9

To behave in a rude and annoying way

to acting shitnuts
  • Offensive
9.9

To behave in a very strange or wild way

Compounds

acting out
34 5.9

Bad behavior that shows strong feelings or stress

method acting
  • Specialized
5 5.8

A way of performing where a person uses their own feelings and memories to become a character

long-acting
  • Specialized
1 4.1

Active in the body for a long time so you take it less often

How Temporary

temporary
557 3.0
acting
3 3.7
interim
113 5.0
provisional
55 6.1
permanent
650 3.2

Surface Forms

acting positive

Morphology

acting = act (semi-transparent) = act + ing

While the structure is clear, the specific usage as an adjective meaning 'temporarily serving' is not a direct derivation from 'act'.

Etymology

Acting, as in 'acting manager', comes from the verb act, which means 'to do' or 'perform' and shares the root with action. So an acting manager is someone who is 'doing' the job for now, temporarily filling the role.