Word Confusion: Acts vs Ask vs Ax(e)

Plural for the noun: acts
Gerund: acting

Third person present verb: acts
Past tense or past participle: acted
Present participle: acting

Plural for the noun: ask
Gerund: asking

Third person present verb: asks
Past tense or past participle: asked
Present participle: asking

Slang variation: aks

Plural for the noun: axes
Gerund: axing

third person present verb: axes
Past tense or past participlepast participle: axed
Present participle: axing

Alternative spelling: axe

Australian Capital Territory ^1b

Association of Classroom Teachers

Noun:
A thing done ²

• A deed
• [Acts or Acts of the Apostles] A New Testament book immediately following the Gospels and relating the history of the early Church

[In singular noun] A pretense

• A particular type of behavior or routine

A written ordinance of Congress or another legislative body

• A statute
• A document attesting a legal transaction
• [Dated; often acts] The recorded decisions or proceedings of a committee or an academic body
• Decree or edict
• Judgment, resolve, or award

A main division of a play, ballet, or opera

• A set performance
• A performing group

The process of doing

[Philosophy; in scholasticism] Activity in process

• Operation
• The principle or power of operation
• Form as determining essence
• A state of realization, as opposed to potentiality

Verb, intransitive:
Take action ²

• Do something
• [act on] Take action according to or in the light of
• [act for] Take action in order to bring about
• [act for, act on behalf of; usually followed by for] Represent (someone) on a contractual, legal, or paid basis
• [act from, act out of] Be motivated by
• To reach, make, or issue a decision on some matter

[With adverbial] Behave in the way specified

• [act as, act like] Behave in the manner of

[act as] Fulfill the function or serve the purpose of

• Have the effect of

Take effect

• Have a particular effect

Perform a fictional role in a play, movie, or television production

• [With complement] Behave so as to appear to be
• Pretend to be
• Feign

To be capable of being performed

Verb, transitive:
Perform (a part or role) ²

• [act something out] Perform a narrative as if it were a play
• [Psychoanalysis; act something out] Express repressed or unconscious feelings in overt behavior

To feign

• Counterfeit

To behave as

[Obsolete] To actuate

• The price at which an item, especially a financial security, is offered for sale

[Scandinavian mythology] The first man, made by the gods from an ash tree ²

Verb, intransitive:
Say something in order to obtain an answer or some information ¹

[ask around] Talk to various people in order to find something out

• [British ask after or Scottish ask for] Inquire about the health or well-being of

Request (someone) to do or give something

• [ask for] Request to speak to

Verb, transitive:
Say something in order to obtain an answer or some information ¹

• Request (someone) to do or give something
• Request permission to do something
• Request (a specified amount) as a price for selling something
• Expect or demand (something) of someone

Invite (someone) to one’s home or a function

• [ask someone along] Invite someone to join one on an outing
• [ask someone out] Invite someone out socially, typically on a date

Verb, reporting:
Say something in order to obtain an answer or some information ¹

• [the axe] A measure intended to reduce costs drastically, especially one that involves elimination of staff

[Informal; US slang] A musical instrument, especially one played by a jazz or rock musician ³

Verb, intransitive:
[West Indian or dialect; only as ax] Non-standard form of ask ²

Verb, transitive:
End, cancel, or dismiss suddenly and ruthlessly ¹

• Reduce (costs or services) drastically

Cut or strike with an axe, especially violently or destructively

[West Indian or dialect; only as ax] Non-standard form of ask ²

The ACT is a federal territory of Australia containing the Australian capital city of Canberra and some surrounding townships.

ACT hosts virtual professional learning opportunities.

Noun:
They were criminal acts.

They displayed many acts of heroism.

Acts was written in Greek, presumably by St. Luke the Evangelist.

She was putting on an act all day and laughing a lot.

He did his Sir Galahad and Monty Python acts.

Congress passed two acts that day.

He attested to the act of witnessing the signing of his will.

The Brown Act applies to legislative bodies of local agencies, including school districts.

We’ve already seen the first and second acts.

She has three set acts: her one-woman poetry act and her comedy routines about being a fat woman and a lifestyle coach.

They booked two acts: the Apple Blossom Sisters and the Proud Ones.

The boys were caught in the act.

He performed a running act of checking to be sure that he was doing what he wanted to do (Chang).

“If an essence has an act of being, the act of being is limited by that essence whose act it is” (Kerr).

“It is the essence of the thing, standing in potency to a distinct act of existence, that accounts for the potentiality of creatures and thereby distinguishes them from God, who is not so composed” (Kerr).

Verb, intransitive:
They urged Washington to act.

Governments must act to reduce pollution.

She always acts on his suggestion.

It depends on one’s ability to act for community change.

This attorney acts for him.

She acts from greed.

They followed the man who was seen acting suspiciously.

He acts as if he owned the place.

She acts well under all conditions.

He acts like a civilized adult.

They need volunteers to act as foster parents.

We hope a five-year sentence will act as a deterrent.

Bacteria acts on proteins and sugar.

She acted in her first professional role at the age of six.

He acts in three plays by Molière.

She only acts dumb until she gets to know you.

I am required to act before noon tomorrow.

She acts like she’s his manager.

The medicine acts as expected.

Act interested even if you’re bored.

His plays don’t act well.

In my absence the assistant manager acts for me.

Verb, transitive:
He acted the role of the dragon.

She acts out other people’s jobs.

The class was all about encouraging students to act out the stories.

The impulses of hatred and killing which he acts out through his murders.

She acts with all outraged virtue.

He acts the fool.

What caused him to act?

Those are the ask prices for those bonds.

Askr and Embla were the first man and first woman, created from tree trunks found on the seashore by three gods — Odin and his two brothers, Vili and Ve (Editors).

Verb, intransitive:
That boy is asking for it.

The old man should ask about her job.

There are fine meals to be had, if you ask around.

Mrs. Savage asked after Iris’ mother.

Don’t be afraid to ask for advice.

When you arrive, ask for Catherine.

Verb, transitive:
People are always asking questions.

Mary will ask her father for money.

I will ask him to call the manager.

She’ll ask if she could move in. Just wait and see.

He should ask to see the officer involved.

I’d ask $250 for the guitar.

It’s asking a lot, but could you look through Billy’s things?

It’s about time we asked Pam to dinner.

Do you want to ask him along?

A few boys asked her out but never the right ones.

Verb, reporting:
“How much further?” I asked.

He asked if she wanted coffee.

He asked whether his electric wheelchair would fit through their doors.

I was going to need a new ax blade.

Thirty workers are facing the ax in the assembly department.

She joined the board because she had an axe to grind with the school system.

Check out my new axe, man.

Verb, intransitive:
She gonna ax about Mama?

The TV program was axed.

Verb, transitive:
The company is axing 125 jobs.

Some 2,500 staff were axed as part of the realignment.

The candidates all promised to axe government spending.

The door had been axed by the firefighters.

Don’t ax this question again.

I axed him if he wanted some company.

1. 1.a. First developed in 1959, ACT stood for American College Testing.
2. 1.b. 1911, the Australian Capital Territory became a separate administrative division, when it was transferred from New South Wales to the Australian federal government.
3. 2.   Late Middle English from the Latin actus meaning event, thing done and act- meaning done, from the verb agere, reinforced by the French noun acte.

1. A Middle English asken, axen, which came from Early Old English, then Old English āscian, āhsian, āxian, and cognate with the Old Frisian āskia, the Old Saxon ēscon, the Old High German eiscōn (the German heischen), and the Sanskrit icchati meaning (he) seeks.
2. Old Norse Askr

1. Old English æx is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch aaks and the German Axt.
2. Until nearly 1600, acsian, axian were in use until it evolved into ax as the regular literary form, and is still used everywhere in Midland and Southern dialects, though supplanted in standard English by ask, which was originally the northern form.
3. 1955 with two theories as to the evolution of axe as slang for the saxophone — sax/axe as a rhyme or the swing of a jazz sax player as he plays. Later, axe was applied to the trumpet. Even later, axe became accepted as slang for an electric guitar.