acts

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of act.

   The play is divided into three acts with a short intermission.

   Parliament passed several acts addressing pollution that year.

   Note

   Not every meaning of act can be counted, so not every meaning has this plural. Deeds, statutes and divisions of a play pluralize freely: acts of kindness, acts of Parliament. The obsolete sense "actuality" and the therapy acronym are mass nouns and stay singular. The American admissions test, by contrast, counts like any exam: a student who sits it twice has taken two ACTs.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of act.

   The committee acts only after gathering input from every department.

   He acts in three plays at the local theater this season.

   Note

   One present-tense form covers several constructions. With an adverb it reports conduct: she acts quickly. Followed by an adjective it works like seems (he acts tired, she acts surprised), and in that use the adjective, not an adverb, is correct. A play can even be the subject: a script that acts well plays well on stage. Keep it apart from the plural noun, as in three acts.

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