Word.ws English Dictionary

actus reus

UK/ˌaktəsˈɹeɪəs/

actus reus noun: the act or acts constituting a criminal offense, as distinguished from the intentions or state of mind of the perpetrator (mens rea).

Noun

actus reus (plural actus rei)

  1. The act or acts constituting a criminal offense, as distinguished from the intentions or state of mind of the perpetrator (mens rea).
    • It is hornbook criminal law that criminal offenses are defined in terms of an actus reus (criminal act) and a mens rea (criminal mind).1989, James B. Jacobs, Drunk Driving: An American Dilemma, University of Chicago Press, page 65
    • A brute emotional reflex to the actus reus, the bad act (‘She killed her husband! Shame!’), could trigger an urge for retribution regardless of her intention.2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin 2012, page 610

actus reus meaning in Tamil, Malay and Indonesian

actus reus in Tamil

குற்றச்செயல்

actus reus in Malay

criminal act
actus reus

actus reus in Indonesian

criminal act
actus reus

Forms of actus reus

pluralactus rei

Origin of actus reus

From Late Latin āctus reus (“guilty act”), from Latin āctus (“act”) + reus (“guilty”); after Late Latin and English mens rea.

Questions about actus reus

What does actus reus mean?
Actus reus means the act or acts constituting a criminal offense, as distinguished from the intentions or state of mind of the perpetrator (mens rea).
What is actus reus in Tamil?
Actus reus in Tamil is குற்றச்செயல். See Actus reus meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is actus reus?
Actus reus is a noun.
How do you pronounce actus reus?
Actus reus is pronounced /ˌaktəsˈɹeɪəs/ (UK).
What is the plural of actus reus?
The plural of actus reus is actus rei.

Words near actus reus in the dictionary

  1. actuous
  2. acture
  3. acturience
  4. actus
  5. actus rei
  6. actus reus
  7. actynolite
  8. actynolites
  9. actynopterigian
  10. actynopterigians
  11. ACU

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: actus reus (page history and authors); actus reus (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-actus reus.wav.

Cite this entry: “actus reus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/actus_reus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.