operation.
The method by which a device performs its function.
Meaning & usage
The method by which a device performs its function.
It is dangerous to look at the beam of a laser while it is in operation.
The method or practice by which actions are done.
The act or process of operating (verb): agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral.
A planned undertaking.
The police ran an operation to get vagrants off the streets.
The Katrina relief operation was considered botched.
A business or organization.
We run our operation from a storefront.
They run a multinational produce-supply operation.
A surgical procedure.
She had an operation to remove her appendix.
A procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands).
The number of operands associated with an operation is called its arity; an operation of arity 2 is called a binary operation.
A procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands). A function which maps zero or more (but typically two) operands to a single output value.
A military campaign (e.g. Operation Desert Storm).
Effect produced; influence.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃épos Proto-Italic *opos Latin opus Latin opera Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātus Latin operātusbf. Latin operor Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin operātiōder. Old French operacionbor. Middle English operacioun English operation From Middle English operacioun, from Old French operacion, from Latin operātiō, from the verb operor (“to work”), from opus, operis (“work”). Equivalent to operate + -ion.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.