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Etymology
Origin of enactment
Explanation
The process of making something into a law is enactment. The enactment of new legislation in your town means that you'll now have to keep your dog on a leash in all public parks. Enactment comes from the verb enact, which has long been used to mean "establish as law." This legal terminology has "act" at its center, meaning both "to do" and "written proof of something that's been said, done, or agreed to." Legitimizing this kind of act as law is where enactment comes in. You can also use this word for the resulting law itself: "The enactment doesn't affect me — I never let my dog off her leash anyway."
Vocabulary lists containing enactment
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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New York state has required both public and private universities to disclose foreign funds since 1984, prior to the enactment of federal Section 117 regulations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
Since the law’s enactment, Congress has provided funding for the national program.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
The bill’s imminent enactment comes as housing affordability is front and center for many Americans.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026
“They’re not taking into account all the legislative history and statements made at the time of the enactment of Dodd-Frank.”
From Barron's ● Apr. 15, 2026
Few criticisms of the legislation could be heard en route to enactment.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
In general, that anxiety shows up in the defenses against it through a wide variety of hypermasculine poses, declarations and enactments.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2024
Such stories and dramatic enactments can bring shared attention to these kinds of challenges, and we know that shared attention is one mechanism that can help people cooperate and solve coordination dilemmas.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 20, 2023
“The Judicial Branch derives its legitimacy, not from following public opinion, but from deciding by its best lights whether legislative enactments of the popular branches of Government comport with the Constitution.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 2, 2022
For example, one of the first significant congressional enactments was the Sedition Act of 1798, which basically made it a crime to criticize the government.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2020
Register Solberg also printed as preliminary to the second hearing the copyright bill compared with copyright statutes then in force, and earlier United States enactments.
From Copyright: Its History and Its Law by Richard Rogers Bowker
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
