act vs appearance

act

noun
  • A display of behaviour. 

  • A product of a legislative body, a statute. 

  • A display of behaviour meant to deceive. 

  • A division of a theatrical performance. 

  • Something done once and for all, as distinguished from a work. 

  • Any organized activity. 

  • A performer or performers in a show. 

  • A formal or official record of something done. 

  • The process of doing something. 

  • A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student. 

  • Something done, a deed. 

verb
  • Of a play: to be acted out (well or badly). 

  • To perform a theatrical role. 

  • To play (a role). 

  • To convey an appearance of being. 

  • To map via a homomorphism to a group of automorphisms (of). 

  • To feign. 

  • To do something. 

  • To have an effect (on). 

  • To behave in a certain manner for an indefinite length of time. 

  • To do something that causes a change binding on the doer. 

appearance

noun
  • The way something looks; personal presence 

  • The act of appearing or coming into sight; the act of becoming visible to the eye. 

  • Chiefly used by nurses: the act of defecation by a patient. 

  • The act of appearing in a particular place, or in society, a company, or any proceedings; a coming before the public in a particular character. 

  • An instance of someone coming into a court of law to be part of a trial, either in person or represented by an attorney or such like; a court appearance 

  • A thing seen; a phenomenon; an apparition. 

  • That which is not substance, essence, hypostasis; the outward reality as opposed to the underlying reality 

  • Apparent likeness; the way which something or someone appears to others. 

How often have the words act and appearance occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )