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Literature vocabulary · Drama and Theatre

Act

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ækt/nounCore term

In literature, act means: One of the main parts into which a play is divided, usually made up of several scenes and often separated by an interval.

In Turkish: perde

How it is used

Used to locate passages in a play: Act 2, Scene 3, or in essays III.ii. Shakespeare's plays are usually printed in five acts; Chekhov's major plays have four; many modern plays have two or are one-act plays. Screenwriters speak of three-act structure.

Example sentences

  1. The murder happens offstage at the end of Act 2.

  2. Our drama club is staging three short one-act plays.

Common collocations

  • Act 1, Scene 2
  • one-act play
  • five-act play
  • three-act structure
  • the final act
  • playA piece of writing for the theatre, made up of dialogue and stage directions, that actors perform in front of an audience.
  • dramaLiterature written to be performed by actors on a stage, telling a story through dialogue and action; also a single serious play.
  • stage directionsInstructions in the text of a play, usually in italics or brackets, that describe the setting, the actors' movements, tone of voice or lighting.
  • soliloquyA speech in a play in which a character, alone on stage, speaks his or her thoughts aloud so that the audience learns what the character really feels.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Drama and Theatre

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