as in to pose
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Recent Examples of playact
Today, Margaret would be playacting her own massacre in active shooter drills at school.
—
Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 1 May 2023
Trixie advises Alma to playact highness to flummox E.B.
—Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 18 Dec. 2021
Today, this dynamic lives on in the form of Roblox strip clubs, where young people — mostly, minors — playact at adult sexuality.
—Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone, 12 Sep. 2021
The world had first required her to playact as a man.
—Will Stephenson, Harper's Magazine, 15 Sep. 2020
Yona has it better than the locals who have agreed to playact, and likely die, in Mui’s fake new disaster.
—Madeline Leung Coleman, The Atlantic, 13 Aug. 2020
Cloud is almost childlike, a boy playacting at being a warrior and not always nailing the part.
—Julie Muncy, Wired, 10 Apr. 2020
Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 1 May 2023
Trixie advises Alma to playact highness to flummox E.B.
—Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 18 Dec. 2021
Today, this dynamic lives on in the form of Roblox strip clubs, where young people — mostly, minors — playact at adult sexuality.
—Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone, 12 Sep. 2021
The world had first required her to playact as a man.
—Will Stephenson, Harper's Magazine, 15 Sep. 2020
Yona has it better than the locals who have agreed to playact, and likely die, in Mui’s fake new disaster.
—Madeline Leung Coleman, The Atlantic, 13 Aug. 2020
Cloud is almost childlike, a boy playacting at being a warrior and not always nailing the part.
—Julie Muncy, Wired, 10 Apr. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for playact
Verb
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The model posed for the cameras on the red carpet before the show with uneven forehead bangs and choppy layers framing her face.—
Kaleigh Werner,
Footwear News,
19 Sep. 2025
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Coming to terms with colonial-era collaboration would pose one of the most vexing challenges in a liberated Korea.—
Kornel Chang
September 19,
Literary Hub,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Following the charges, the Barnetts shared their side of the story: The couple alleged that Natalia was an adult masquerading as a child.—
Lynsey Eidell,
PEOPLE,
12 Sep. 2025
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Is this a trainwreck masquerading as an instruction manual for maintenance of a particularly dangerous train?—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
10 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
The study saw parents use actions to joke and pretend with kids aged 16 to 20 months old.—
Jack Beresford,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
-
Scrolling on one’s phone can be a deadening experience, but here’s someone feeling, or at least pretending to feel, a genuine feeling—even if the abundance of these videos surely numbs us further.—
Spencer Kornhaber,
The Atlantic,
15 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The account that had impersonated him, after blowing up on @joma_gc, deactivated and removed all of its information from the page.—
Eva Roytburg,
Fortune,
16 Sep. 2025
-
Hortman was killed alongside her husband in their Brooklyn Park home by a man allegedly impersonating a police officer.—
Jesus Mesa,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
By turning a blind eye to scalpers, even giving them the tools to bypass limits and harvest tickets, Live Nation has acted as the promoter, the primary ticket seller, the artists’ manager, and the scalper.—
Walden Green,
Pitchfork,
19 Sep. 2025
-
Each has talked up and acted upon the notion that universities’ illiberal and often hypocritical approaches to issues concerning free speech and antisemitism need to change.—
David Mark,
The Washington Examiner,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Almost two full years later, on the verge of making the postseason, the Padres returned to the ballpark that is home to one of baseball’s worst teams and continued to play like a team that seems bent on disappointing in its own spectacular way.—
Kevin Acee,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
20 Sep. 2025
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Yet, Ruud just kept right on playing good defense — racing around Laver Cup’s black hardcourt — and somehow managing to return serves that reached 130 mph.—
Jim Harrington,
Mercury News,
20 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Among the interested parties were shipbreakers planning to dissemble the vessel for scrap metal, according to Saw.—
Oscar Holland,
CNN Money,
21 Aug. 2025
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Authorities were forced to dissemble the back deck in order to rescue some of the pups that were beneath, according to the Strong Island Animal Rescue League, who assisted with the efforts.—
David Matthews,
New York Daily News,
7 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
When match officials placed a more-than-three-foot-tall trophy in the middle of the ring, Ali grabbed it and feigned running away with it.—
Vann R. Newkirk II,
The Atlantic,
16 Sep. 2025
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McLeod’s video shows her teaching Ella how to feign death during a potential shooting by remaining motionless, often in an awkward pose, and holding her breath.—
Faith Karimi,
CNN Money,
29 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Playact.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/playact. Accessed 21 Sep. 2025.
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