Acting refers to an action or deed. It commonly describes something done by a party — so called to avoid confusion with the legal senses of deed and action, pretending, and the occupation of an actor, which gives the term a broader and more practical sense than a single short definition would suggest. Depending on context, it can also point to temporarily assuming the duties or authority of another person when they are unable to do their job, to do something, and to do (something); to perform, so the category can cover literal uses, related ideas, and more figurative extensions of the same core meaning. Taken together, these meanings present Acting as a flexible theme rather than a narrowly technical label, covering the central idea people usually mean when they use the word while still leaving room for closely related senses that appear in real language. Additional shades of meaning include to perform a theatrical role, of a play: to be acted out (well or badly), to behave in a certain manner for an indefinite length of time, to convey an appearance of being, and to do something that causes a change binding on the doer, which reinforce how the category can stretch across adjacent but still recognizable uses of the same term.
