activity

American  

[ak-tiv-i-tee] / ækˈtɪv ɪ ti /

noun

plural

activities

1. the state or quality of being active.

   There was not much activity in the stock market today. He doesn't have enough physical activity in his life.

2. a specific deed, action, function, or sphere of action.

   social activities.

3. work, especially in elementary grades at school, that involves direct experience by the student rather than textbook study.

4. energetic activity; animation; liveliness.

5. a use of energy or force; an active movement or operation.

6. normal mental or bodily power, function, or process.

7. Physical Chemistry. the capacity of a substance to react, corrected for the loss of reactivity due to the interaction of its constituents.

8. Physics.

   1. the number of atoms of a radioactive substance that disintegrate per unit of time, usually expressed in curies.

   2. radioactivity.

9. an organizational unit or the function it performs.

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activity British  

/ ækˈtɪvɪtɪ /

noun

1. the state or quality of being active

2. lively action or movement

3. any specific deed, action, pursuit, etc

   recreational activities

4. the number of disintegrations of a radioactive substance in a given unit of time, usually expressed in curies or disintegrations per second

5. 1. the capacity of a substance to undergo chemical change

   2. the effective concentration of a substance in a chemical system. The absolute activity of a substance B, λ B , is defined as exp (μ B RT ) where μ B is the chemical potential

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Other Word Forms

• nonactivity noun
• preactivity noun
• superactivity noun

Etymology

Origin of activity

First recorded in 1520–30; from Middle French or directly from Medieval Latin āctīvitās; active, -ity

Example Sentences

Chief executive Jim Savege said: "The declaration of the incident is mainly an internal mechanism for the council that allows me to divert more staff and resources towards priority activity than we've been doing already."

From BBC

For now the UK Ministry of Defence says it will not comment on other nations' military activities.

From BBC

Berkshire Hathaway’s former chief executive Warren Buffett made many remarks critical of this activity in his annual letters to shareholders.

From MarketWatch

He said that for some young people, run clubs and other fitness activities have become a replacement for letting loose after work.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Our bookings activity was very strong in the December quarter despite a holiday filled quarter.”

From Barron's

Related Words

• act
• endeavor
• enterprise
• job
• project
• scheme
• task
• venture
• work