action

Meanings

Noun

• The effort of performing or doing something.
• Something done, often so as to accomplish a purpose.
• A way of motion or functioning.
• Fast-paced activity.
• A mechanism; a moving part or assembly.
• 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.
• The distance separating the strings and the fretboard on a guitar.
• Sexual intercourse.
• Combat.
• A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).
• A mapping from a pairing of mathematical objects to one of them, respecting their individual structures. The pairing is typically a Cartesian product or a tensor product. The object that is not part of the output is said to act on the other object. In any given context, action is used as an abbreviation for a more fully named notion, like group action or left group action.
• The product of energy and time, especially the product of the Lagrangian and time.
• 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.
• The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
• spin put on the bowling ball.
• A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.

Interjection

• Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually a performance.

Verb

• To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
• To initiate a legal action against someone.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• action at a distance
• direct action
• social action

Origin

• From Middle English accion, from Old French aucion,acciun, from Latin āctiō ("act of doing or making"), from āctus + action suffix -iō, perfect passive participle of agō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti; see also act, active.
• Morphologically act + -ion.