actant

British

/ ˈæktənt /

noun

linguistics (in valency grammar) a noun phrase functioning as the agent of the main verb of a sentence

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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actant

“You’re one of those actant things,” said Andrea.

From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2020

Nadine had been wondering how her actant fitted into this system.

From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2020

“I’m not Sweetie right now, she’s avataring for me. I’m Mercury—the actant that hired her.”

From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2020

“I’m, um, I’m representing the fine particulate matter in our local air. There’s something called an actant, you may have heard …?”

From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2020

She made it a term of her agreement with the actant that it speak through Donna whenever she was available.

From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2020

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023