Word.ws English Dictionary

act of Congress

act of Congress noun: a statute enacted by the United States Congress or Congress of the Philippines.

Noun

act of Congress (plural acts of Congress)

  1. (Philippine, US, literally) A statute enacted by the United States Congress or Congress of the Philippines.
  2. (US, colloquial, idiomatic) An authorization that is extremely difficult to obtain, especially in a timely fashion.
    • Does it take an act of Congress just to get a stop sign on a corner?
    • Should Frederick stick around — and apparently it would take an act of Congress to get him out of the ICU — he might take up where Molly had brutally left off.2000, Nevada Barr, Liberty Falling, page 79

Examples of act of Congress in a sentence

  • Since it seemed like getting a glass of wine was going to require an act of Congress, I quickly agreed.2003, E. Lynn Harris, A Love of My Own, page 54:
  • Another problem was bureaucratic: the transfer of the ship required, literally, an act of Congress.2008, Bill White with Robert Gandt, Intrepid: The Epic Story of America's Most Legendary Warship, page 273:

Forms of act of Congress

pluralacts of Congress

Origin of act of Congress

From the literal sense of act (“legislation”) enacted by US Congress.

Questions about act of Congress

What does act of Congress mean?
Act of Congress means a statute enacted by the United States Congress or Congress of the Philippines.
How do you use act of Congress in a sentence?
Since it seemed like getting a glass of wine was going to require an act of Congress, I quickly agreed.
What part of speech is act of Congress?
Act of Congress is a noun.
What is the plural of act of Congress?
The plural of act of Congress is acts of Congress.

Words near act of Congress in the dictionary

  1. act a fool
  2. act chicken
  3. act curtain
  4. act curtains
  5. act of adjournal
  6. act of Congress
  7. act of darkness
  8. act of faith
  9. act of God
  10. act of independent significance
  11. act of parliament

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: act of Congress (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-act of Congress.ogg.

Cite this entry: “act of Congress.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/act_of_congress. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.