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reenact

UK/ɹi.ɪˈnækt/US/ɹi.ɪˈnækt/
verbC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,885 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: reenacted, reenacting, reenacts

To reenact is to act out a past event again. Reenact the battle, a reenacted scene, reenact the crime.

Battle reenactment is a serious hobby with real research behind it, and the people doing it often know more than the historians. In law, to reenact a statute is to pass it again in new words.

Definitions of reenact

  1. 1verbreenactTo act out a past event again.C1

    “The police asked the witness to reenact exactly what she did on the night of the crime.”

reenact is a performing.

Also accepted in games: re-enact

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    in- — in

  2. Old French

    en- — to cause to be

  3. Middle English

    enacten

  4. English

    enact

  5. English, today

    reenact

Built from

  • ago · Latin — set in motion

From re- + enact. enact comes from Middle English enacten, from en-, from Old French en- (“to cause to be”), from Latin in- (“in”) and Old French acte (“perform, do”), from Latin actum, past participle of ago (“set in motion”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

reenact in the wild

  • On Pioneer Day, some Latter-day Saints walk portions of the Mormon Trail or reenact entering the Salt Lake Valley by handcart.

    Pioneer Day

  • In it, the dancers reenact the lives of salt-merchants.

    Chumak (dance)

  • Some of kilns were reconstructed to reenact the way people of Goryeo made the celadons.

    Goryeo Celadon Museum

  • British engineer John Hoyte led an expedition that tried to reenact aspects of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps during the Second Punic War in 218 BCE.

    British Alpine Hannibal Expedition

  • Unknown to Jeff, Abed is actually using the dinner to reenact another movie.

    Critical Film Studies

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • enact
  • reenactment