action
Part of speech: noun
intj
adj
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: Christianity
art
arts
bowling
card-games
crafts
economics
engineering
entertainment
firearms
government
hobbies
law
lifestyle
literature
lutherie
management
mathematics
media
military
music
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
poker
politics
publishing
sciences
sports
tools
war
weaponry
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.
Inflected forms:
form: actions
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: action!
pos: intj
tags: canonical
form: more action
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most action
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: actions
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: actioning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: actioned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: actioned
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: The effort of performing or doing something.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Something done, often so as to accomplish a purpose.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A way of motion or functioning.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Knead bread with a rocking action.
gloss: Fast-paced activity.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: a movie full of exciting action
gloss: The way in which a mechanical device acts when used; especially a firearm.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Pressing a piano key causes the action of the hammer on the string.
gloss: The way in which a mechanical device acts when used; especially a firearm.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: pump-action shotgun
gloss: A physical mechanism.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The run in bar 12 is almost impossible with this piano's heavy action.
gloss: The distance separating the strings and the fingerboard on a string instrument.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: You're getting fret buzz because the action is too low.
gloss: Sexual intercourse.
pos: noun
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
examples: She gave him some action.
I hope to get a bit of action with the hot guy from the club.
gloss: Combat.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: He saw some action in the Korean War.
gloss: A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: 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).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The product of energy and time, especially the product of the Lagrangian and time.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: spin put on the bowling ball.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: So saying he presented him with two actions of above two thousand livres each.
the Euripus of funds and actions
gloss: A religious performance or solemn function, i.e. action sermon, a sacramental sermon in the Scots Presbyterian Church.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The Action Sermon is quite simply, then, the eucharistic sermon.
gloss: A process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Purposeful behavior.
pos: noun
tags: Austrian
countable
uncountable
gloss: A demonstration by activists.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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.
gloss: The opportunity to act during a betting round.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: The action starts with the small blind.
gloss: Heavy betting activity.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
slang
uncountable
examples: There was a lot of action on the flop; it was an action flop.
gloss: Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually a performance.
pos: intj
examples: The director yelled ‘Action!’ after the cameras started rolling.
gloss: arrogant
pos: adj
tags: Manglish
gloss: To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: ‘Here, give me the minutes of Monday’s meeting. I’ll action your points for you while you get on and sort out the open day.’
Violent reactions from the Jewish authorities were expected and difficulties of actioning the new guidelines were foreseen.
HMRC said that one reason they had not actioned her appeal was because she had said in her appeal form ‘I am appealing against the overpayment for childcare for 2003-04, 2004-05’, thus implying she was disputing her ‘overpayment’.
Do say: “I can action that for you going forward, my little summer squash.”
gloss: To initiate a legal action against someone.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: ‘I have no business to settle with you—arrest me, Sir, at your peril and I’ll action you in law for false imprisonment.’
“Scrip threatened me at first with an action for slander—he spoke of actions to the wrong man though—action! no, no no. I should have actioned him—ha! ha! [...]”
I have actioned him for Libel, but he won’t plead, and says he will make himself bankrupt & won’t pay a penny.
In 1589 the Court went so far as to effect a reconciliation between Michel le Petevin and his wife after she actioned him for ill treatment and adultery with their chambermaid.
Synonyms: act
action
acting
cocky
deed
doing
Antonyms: inaction
omission
Related words: act
agency
agent
deed
Derived words: actant
actionable
action adventure
actional
action doll
actionee
actioner
actionfest
action figure
action film
action-forcing
action game
action group
action hero
action hoe
action house
actionism
actionist
action item
actionize
actionless
actionlet
actionlike
action man
action movie
actionness
action noun
action-packed
action painter
action painting
action plan
action point
action potential
action replay
action research
ActionScript
action song
action space
action sport
actions speak louder than words
action star
action stations
action teaching
action verb
action word
actiony
actious
after-action
all talk and no action
alternate action
apefirmative action
back action
backaction
bioaction
bolt-action
bolt action
call to action
capillary action
cause of action
chose in action
civil action
class-action
class action
coaction
collective action
counteraction
course of action
cowboy action shooting
cross action
double action
double-action
ecoaction
enemy action
evasive action
falling action
false action
galvanic action
general intelligent action
geriaction
get action
grand action
holding action
hyperaction
in action
inaction
industrial action
job action
jump into action
killed in action
labor action
labour action
leap into action
legal action
lever action
lights, camera, action
live action
lost in action
man of action
material action
microaction
misaction
missing in action
no-action letter
no further action
nonaction
out of action
overaction
party to the action
Peabody action
permissive-action link
Phineas action
piece of the action
plan of action
play-action pass
police action
popular action
positive action
preaction
pre-action
principle of least action
pump action
put into action
quantum of action
radius of action
rearguard action
reflection-in-action
reflection-on-action
repose in action
representative action
retroaction
rising action
romaction
secondary action
self-action
shareholders' derivative action
slide action
spooky action at a distance
spring into action
stop-action
subaction
suit the action to the word
superaction
swing into action
take action
thing in action
unaction
underaction
unity of action
western action shooting
zone of action
Translations: