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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

From Slate • Nov. 28, 2020

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

From Slate • Nov. 28, 2020

After all, she’d told these people that the actant could be trusted, that its blockchain-based smart contracts were incorruptible.

From Slate • Nov. 28, 2020

Donna wasn’t available to avatar, but with the new funding the actant could afford more sophisticated augmented-reality characters.

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

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