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actress

noun

Simple meaning

A female who performs on the stage or in films.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ahktruhs

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈak.tɹəs

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A female who performs on the stage or in films.

  2. A female doer or "actor" (in a general sense).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: A female who performs on the stage or in films.

'Actress' specifically refers to a female performer. While 'actor' can now be used for any gender, 'actress' is still very common and widely accepted for women in film or theater.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where you'll really hear it

  • Movie review

    “The lead actress delivered a powerful and emotional performance.”

  • Award show

    “She won Best Actress for her role in the drama.”

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use actress

  • “The talented actress performed brilliantly in the new play last night.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

supporting actressyoung actressbest actressgreat actressamerican actressgood actressfilm actressenglish actress

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Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.