playacting

play-act

or play·act P5395800 (plā′ăkt′)intr.v. play-act·ed, play-act·ing, play-acts also play·act·ed or play·act·ing also play·acts 1. To play a role in a dramatic performance.2. To play a pretended role; make believe.3. To behave in an overdramatic or artificial manner.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

playacting - the performance of a part or role in a dramaacting, performing, playingactivity - any specific behavior; "they avoided all recreational activity"personation, portrayal, characterization, enactment - acting the part of a character on stage; dramatically representing the character by speech and action and gesturepersonation, impersonation - imitating the mannerisms of another personmethod acting, method - an acting technique introduced by Stanislavsky in which the actor recalls emotions or reactions from his or her own life and uses them to identify with the character being portrayeddumb show, pantomime, mime - a performance using gestures and body movements without wordsbyplay, stage business, business - incidental activity performed by an actor for dramatic effect; "his business with the cane was hilarious"performance - the act of presenting a play or a piece of music or other entertainment; "we congratulated him on his performance at the rehearsal"; "an inspired performance of Mozart's C minor concerto"skit - a short theatrical episodehamming, overacting - poor acting by a ham actorheroics - ostentatious or vainglorious or extravagant or melodramatic conduct; "heroics are for those epic films they make in Hollywood"reenactment - performing a role in an event that occurred at an earlier time; "the reenactment of the battle of Princeton"roleplaying - acting a particular role (as in psychotherapy)performing arts - arts or skills that require public performance