enacted

verb

past tense of enact
as in passed
to put into effect through legislative or authoritative action Congress enacts all laws relating to foreign trade and immigration

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of enacted At least two states have previously enacted it, and it’s been proposed in Congress. — Geoff Mulvihill, Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2026 At least two states have previously enacted it, and it's been proposed in Congress. — ABC News, 2 July 2026 Florida enacted new laws cracking down on miscreants in the treatment industry. — Teri Sforza, Oc Register, 5 July 2026 Passed as the second of three Reconstruction amendments, the 14th Amendment was enacted after the Civil War. — Ashley Mowreader, NBC news, 4 July 2026 The Levellers demanded universal male suffrage almost 300 years before modern Britain enacted it. — Teresa M. Bejan, The Atlantic, 3 July 2026 In Greenville, North Carolina, the city's mayor enacted a curfew ahead of the holiday weekend in response to threats of a teen takeover, according to The Reflector. — Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 3 July 2026 Unlike tax laws enacted by Congress, these compliance programs exist solely because the IRS created them administratively. — Virginia La Torre Jeker, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026 WRDAs provide Congress the opportunity every two years to authorize Corps projects, and Congress has enacted all WRDAs since 2014, with the WRDA 2024 bill being signed into law on January 4, 2025. — Lyanne Wang, CBS News, 2 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for enacted
  1. passed
  2. constituted
  3. approved
Verb
  • Congress passed a law making Independence Day a federal holiday on June 28, 1870.
    — Gabe Hauari, USA Today, 4 July 2026
  • Marc Cucurella, on the left side of the box, passed in the middle to Mikel Oyarzabal.
    — Ashley Mowreader, NBC news, 3 July 2026
Definition of passed
Verb
  • Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 30 June 2026
  • Then the doctors would bustle out to see their more appealing patients—the cheerily pregnant ones, whose deliveries constituted the bulk of their income and whose babies would be added to the collage of photos decorating their office walls.
    — Melanie Thernstrom, New Yorker, 29 June 2026
Definition of constituted
Verb
  • During Thursday evening’s Board of Commissioners meeting, officials unanimously, and with no additional discussion, approved Johnston’s exit agreement and named Assistant County Administrator Alan Howze as his replacement for the rest of the year.
    — Sofi Zeman July 2, Kansas City Star, 3 July 2026
  • The celebration comes 250 years after delegates in Philadelphia approved the Declaration, setting in motion what would become the world's oldest continuing experiment in self-government.
    — Anthony Thompson, USA Today, 3 July 2026
Definition of approved

Browse Nearby Words

enact
enacted
enacting
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Enacted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/enacted. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on enacted

Nglish: Translation of enacted for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All