actor
noun
a person who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, television broadcasts, etc.
actor
1 American
[ak-ter]
/ ˈæk tər /
noun
-
actors
plural
-
a person who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, television broadcasts, etc.
-
a person who does something; participant.
Actor
2
American
[ak-ter]
/ ˈæk tər /
noun
Classical Mythology.
actor
British
/ ˈæktə /
noun
-
a person who acts in a play, film, broadcast, etc
-
informal a person who puts on a false manner in order to deceive others (often in the phrase bad actor )
Usage
The term actor is almost universally used nowadays to refer to people of either gender who act
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of actor
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin āctor, equivalent to āg- ( see act) + -tor -tor
Explanation
If you act in a play, whether it's written by Shakespeare or your little brother, you can call yourself an actor. Some actors make films, and others are on TV. Traditionally, the noun actor referred to a male performer, while actress was used to describe a female. These days, it's become more common to use actor for players of any gender. You can also use the word to describe someone who participates in some action, or makes things happen in a particular area: "She was a real actor in the labor movement." In Latin, actor means both "doer" and "theatrical player."
Vocabulary lists containing actor
Academy Awards, List 3
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Literary Terms, Part I
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Just Do It: Act
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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.
See Examples For:
After her 1980 divorce from music producer Lou Adler, Fabares remarried “MASH” actor Mike Farrell in 1984.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
While the two leads are played by Game of Thrones and Rose of Nevada actor Francis Magee, and Norwegian actress Christiane Schaldemose, the rest of the cast was found locally.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
In 2011, “The Artist,” a delightful dialogue-free black-and-white feature, won Oscars for best picture, best director and best actor.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
Michael Ian Black is an actor, writer and comedian who currently appears as a Team Captain on CNN’s Have I Got News For You.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
“The real Morpho actor and artist are coming here to Bayport? This weekend?”
From "A Monster of a Mystery (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #5)" by Franklin W. Dixon
Actor Dave Bautista has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming God of War TV show.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Actor and Tibetan activist Richard Gere headlined an hourslong Times Square rally on Saturday honoring Lobga where many wore T-shirts depicting him as a martyr surrounded by flames.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Actor George Clooney and wife Amal were forced to evacuate their home in France due to the ongoing wildfires breaking out across Europe.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 3, 2026
Actor and writer Stephen Fry's "The Odyssey" currently tops the history bestsellers on Amazon's UK website.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
Then he opened the envelope slowly, like he was at the Academy Awards announcing the Best Actor category.
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
Songs, art and literature that shaped the inner lives of history’s actors are usually overlooked while politics, war and social change appear to drive the national story.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
Actress Michelle Rodriguez, who once hosted the World Music Awards with Panettiere, said this week that the number of child actors who had passed away at a young age was strange.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Rhys: Look, I think I was about to speak for a number of actors and I shouldn’t.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
His idea sounds less wild when you recall that we’re really talking about small communities being targeted by hostile foreign actors, leading Braun to reason that the Department of Defense could possibly fund his effort.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2026
If they sometimes behave like actors in a historical drama, that is often how they regarded themselves.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Definitions 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.
