Word: action Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti Proto-Italic *agō Latin agō Latin āctum Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin āctiō Old French aucionbor. Middle English accioun English action From Middle English accioun, accion, from Old French aucion, acciun, from Latin āctiō(n) (“act of doing or making”), from āct(us) + action suffix -iō(n), perfect passive participle of agere (“do, act”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti. See also act, active. By surface analysis, act + -ion. Pronunciation: /ˈækʃən̩/, [ˈækʃn̩], /ˈakʃən̩/, [ˈakʃn̩], /ˈækʃən/ 1. The effort of performing or doing something. Labels: countable, uncountable 2. Something done, often so as to accomplish a purpose. Labels: countable, uncountable 3. A way of motion or functioning. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Knead bread with a rocking action. 4. Fast-paced activity. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: a movie full of exciting action 5. The way in which a mechanical device acts when used; especially a firearm. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Pressing a piano key causes the action of the hammer on the string. 6. The way in which a mechanical device acts when used; especially a firearm. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: pump-action shotgun 7. A physical mechanism of a firearm or other device. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Spinola was hovering about the external fittings of the figure with unusual fussiness. When at length he released the left hand it seemed for an almost perceptible moment that the action hung. Then the arm descended and carried out the discard. Example: He then took from under his shirts in another drawer a very flat ·25 Beretta automatic with a skeleton grip, extracted the clip and the single round in the barrel and whipped the action to and fro several times, finally pulling the trigger on the empty chamber. 8. The mechanism, that is the set of moving mechanical parts, of a keyboard instrument, like a piano, which transfers the motion of the key to the sound-making device. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The run in bar 12 is almost impossible with this piano's heavy action. 9. The distance separating the strings and the fingerboard on a string instrument. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: You're getting fret buzz because the action is too low. 10. Sexual intercourse. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: She gave him some action. Example: I hope to get a bit of action with the hot guy from the club. 11. Combat. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: He saw some action in the Korean War. 12. A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio). Labels: countable, uncountable 13. A way in which each element of some algebraic structure transforms some other structure or set, in a way which respects the structure of the first. Formally, this may be seen as a morphism from the first structure into some structure of endomorphisms of the second; for example, a group action of a group G on a set S can be seen as a group homomorphism from G into the set of bijections on S (which form a group under function composition), while a module M over a ring R can be defined as an abelian group together with a ring homomorphism from R into the ring of group endomorphisms of M (which is also called the action of R on M). Labels: countable, uncountable 14. The product of energy and time, especially the product of the Lagrangian and time. Labels: countable, uncountable 15. The event or connected series of events, either real or imaginary, forming the subject of a play, poem, or other composition; the unfolding of the drama of events. Labels: countable, uncountable 16. The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted. Labels: countable, uncountable 17. spin put on the bowling ball. Labels: countable, uncountable 18. A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: So saying he presented him with two actions of above two thousand livres each. Example: the Euripus of funds and actions 19. A religious performance or solemn function, i.e. action sermon, a sacramental sermon in the Scots Presbyterian Church. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The Action Sermon is quite simply, then, the eucharistic sermon. 20. A process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings). Labels: countable, uncountable 21. Purposeful behavior. Labels: Austrian, countable, uncountable 22. A demonstration by activists. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The protest was set up in less than three weeks by an ad hoc group called Act Up […] According to Kramer, Act Up will continue AIDS-related organizing, possibly including an action at an early June Washington, D.C., AIDS conference for scientists worldwide. 23. The opportunity to act during a betting round. Labels: uncountable Example: The action starts with the small blind. 24. Heavy betting activity. Labels: broadly, slang, uncountable Example: There was a lot of action on the flop; it was an action flop.