different between acting vs description

English

Etymology

From the verb act.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æk.t??/

Adjective

acting (not comparable)

1. Temporarily assuming the duties or authority of another person when they are unable to do their job.

   The Acting Minister must sign Executive Council documents in a Minister's absence.

   Acting President of the United States is a temporary office in the government of the United States.

Translations

See also

• pro tem

Verb

acting

1. present participle of act

Noun

acting (countable and uncountable, plural actings)

1. (countable, obsolete) An action or deed.
   • 1685, Herbert Croft, Some Animadversions upon a book intituled, The Theory of the Earth, London, Preface,^[1]

     […] he does so much magnifie Nature and her Actings in all this material World, as he gives just cause of suspicion that he hath made her a kind of joynt Deess with God in the Affairs thereof;

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., p. 10,^[2]

     […] I desire this Account may pass with them, rather for a Direction to themselves to act by, than a History of my actings,

2. (law) Something done by a party — so called to avoid confusion with the legal senses of deed and action.
3. Pretending.
4. (drama) The occupation of an actor.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Old French description, from Latin d?scr?pti?, noun of action of d?scr?b? (“I describe”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??sk??p??n/

Noun

description (countable and uncountable, plural descriptions)

1. A sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species.
2. The act of describing; a delineation by marks or signs.
3. A set of characteristics by which someone or something can be recognized.

   The zoo had no lions, tigers, or cats of any description.

4. (taxonomy) A scientific documentation of a taxon for the purpose of introducing it to science.

   The type description of the fungus was written by a botanist.

5. (linguistics) The act or practice of recording and describing actual language usage in a given speech community, as opposed to prescription, i.e. laying down norms of language usage.
6. (linguistics) A descriptive linguistic survey.

Synonyms

• (characteristics): sort, kind, type, variety

Derived terms

Related terms

• describe
• descriptive

Translations

See also

• prescription
• descriptivism

Further reading

• description in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• description in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

See also

• synopsis
• interpretation

Anagrams

• discerption, predictions

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin d?scripti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?s.k?ip.sj??/
• Homophone: descriptions

Noun

description f (plural descriptions)

1. description

Related terms

• décrire
• descriptif

Further reading

• “description” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Etymology

From Latin d?scripti?.

Noun

description f (oblique plural descriptions, nominative singular description, nominative plural descriptions)

1. description

Related terms

• descrivre