action

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See also: Action

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English accion, from Old French aucion, acciun, from Latin āctiō(n) (“act of doing or making”), from āctus + 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

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  • IPA(key): /ˈæk.ʃən/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: ac‧tion
  • Rhymes: -ækʃən

Noun

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action (countable and uncountable, plural actions)

  1. The effort of performing or doing something.
  2. Something done, often so as to accomplish a purpose.
    Coordinate terms: (what verbs can express) occurrence, state of being
  3. A way of motion or functioning.
    Knead bread with a rocking action.
  4. Fast-paced activity.
    a movie full of exciting action
  5. The way in which a mechanical device acts when used; especially a firearm.
    Pressing a piano key causes the action of the hammer on the string.
    1. (firearms) The way in which cartridges are loaded, locked, and extracted from the mechanism.
      pump-action shotgun
  6. (music) 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.[1]
    The run in bar 12 is almost impossible with this piano's heavy action.
  7. (music, lutherie) The distance separating the strings and the fingerboard on a string instrument.
    You're getting fret buzz because the action is too low.
  8. (slang, typically with a quantifier) Sexual intercourse.
    She gave him some action.
    I hope to get a bit of action with the hot guy from the club.
  9. (military) Combat.
    He saw some action in the Korean War.
  10. (law) A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).
  11. (mathematics) 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).
  13. (physics) The product of energy and time, especially the product of the Lagrangian and time.
  14. (literature) 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.
  15. (art, painting and sculpture) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
  16. (bowling) spin put on the bowling ball.
  17. (obsolete) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.
  18. (Christianity) A religious performance or solemn function, i.e. action sermon, a sacramental sermon in the Scots Presbyterian Church.
    • 2008, Duncan B. Forrester, Doug Gay, Worship and Liturgy in Context, scm Press, page 88:
      The Action Sermon is quite simply, then, the eucharistic sermon.
  19. (sciences) A process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings).
  20. (Misesian praxeology, Austrian economics) Purposeful behavior.
  21. A demonstration by activists.
    • 1987 April 11, Kim Westheimer, “NY Protesters Rip FDA”, in Gay Community News, page 1:
      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 inclcuding an action at an early June Washington, D.C., AIDS conference for scientists worldwide.

Synonyms

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Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Terms derived from action (noun)
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Terms etymologically related to action (noun)

Descendants

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  • → Arabic: أَكْشِن (ʔakšin)
  • → Bulgarian: екшън (ekšǎn)
  • → German: Action
  • → Irish: aicsean
  • → Hebrew: אקשן (akshn)
  • → Japanese: アクション (akushon)
  • → Korean: 액션 (aeksyeon)
  • → Russian: экшн (ekšn)

Translations

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painting and sculpture: attitude or position of the several parts of the body
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

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References

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Interjection

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action!

  1. Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually a performance.
    Antonym: cut
    The director yelled ‘Action!’ after the cameras started rolling.

Translations

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Adjective

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action (comparative more action, superlative most action)

  1. (Manglish) arrogant

Verb

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action (third-person singular simple present actions, present participle actioning, simple past and past participle actioned)

  1. (transitive, management) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
    • 2004, Ros Jay, Richard Templar, “Fast thinking: project”, in Fast Thinking Manager's Manual‎[1], 2nd edition, Pearson Education, →ISBN, Fast Thinking Leader, page 276:
      ‘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.’
    • 2005, Fritz Liebreich, “The physical confrontation: interception and diversion policies in theory and practice”, in Britain's Navel and Political Reaction to the Illegal Immigration of Jews to Palestine, 1945-1948‎[2], Routledge, →ISBN, page 196:
      Violent reactions from the Jewish authorities were expected and difficulties of actioning the new guidelines were foreseen.
    • 2007, Great Britain: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, “Case study: 11257”, in Tax Credits: Getting it wrong? 5th report session 2006-2007‎[3], The Stationery Office, →ISBN, Chapter 2: Changes and developments since June 2005, page 26:
      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’.
    • 2024 May 13, “Spice up your spreadsheets! Should you run your relationship like a business?”, in The Guardian‎[4], →ISSN:
      Do say: “I can action that for you going forward, my little summer squash.”
  2. (transitive, chiefly archaic) To initiate a legal action against someone.
    • 1856, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Attaché: or Sam Slick in England‎[5], new revised edition, Stringer & Townsend, Chapter XLVII: The Horse Stealer; or All Trades Have Tricks But Our Own, page 270:
      ‘I have no business to settle with you—arrest me, Sir, at your peril and I’ll action you in law for false imprisonment.’
    • 1844, Robert Mackenzie Daniel, The Grave Digger: A novel by the author of The Scottish Heiress‎[6], volume I, T. C. Newby, Chapter IX: How the Grave-differ entertained a lady, pages 189–190:
      “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! [...]”
    • 1871, Michael Shermer, quoting Alfred Russell Wallace, In Darwin’s shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russell Wallace‎[7], Oxford University Press US, published 2002, →ISBN, Chapter 10. Heretic Personality, page 261:
      I have actioned him for Libel, but he won’t plead, and says he will make himself bankrupt & won’t pay a penny.
    • 1996, Darryl Mark Ogier, “Discipline: Enforcement”, in Reformation and Society in Guernsey‎[8], Boydell & Brewer, →ISBN, Part Two: The Calvinist Regime, page 148:
      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.

Usage notes

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  • The verb sense action is rejected by some usage authorities.[2]

References

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  • OED 2nd edition 1989
  • Notes:
  1. ^ Marshall Cavendish Corporation Growing Up with Science p.1079
  2. ^ Christopher Howse, Richard Preston (2007) She Literally Exploded: The Daily Telegraph Infuriating Phrasebook, London: Constable and Robinson, →ISBN, page 3.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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French

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Etymology

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From Old French acciun, aucion, etymologically reconstructed in Middle French to resemble the Latin actiōnem.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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action f (plural actions)

  1. action, act, deed
    une bonne action ― a good deed
  2. campaign
    une action promotionnelle
    a promotional campaign
  3. stock, share
    une action de capitalisation
    a capitalisation share
  4. (Switzerland) a special offer

Derived terms

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Descendants

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Interlingua

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Noun

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action (plural actiones)

  1. action
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Middle English

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Noun

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action

  1. Alternative form of accion

Middle French

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Etymology

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From Old French acciun, aucion, etymologically reconstructed to resemble the Latin actiō.

Noun

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action f (plural actions)

  1. action; act

Descendants

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Scots

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Etymology

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From Middle English accion.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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action (plural actions)

  1. action

Verb

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action (third-person singular simple present actions, present participle actionin, simple past actiont, past participle actiont)

  1. to action

References

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Swedish

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Noun

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action

  1. action (intense activity)
    Alla är så slöa här. Det behövs mer action.
    Everyone's so lethargic here. We need more action.
    En film med mycket action
    A movie with lots of action (scenes)

Usage notes

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Uninflected.

Derived terms

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See also

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References

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