activity

[ ak-tiv-i-tee ]

noun

, plural ac·tiv·i·ties.

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.

activity

/ 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

Other Words From

• non·ac·tiv·i·ty noun plural nonactivities
• pre·ac·tiv·i·ty noun plural preactivities
• su·per·ac·tiv·i·ty noun plural superactivities

Word History and Origins

Origin of activity¹

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

Example Sentences

What I discovered about sunflower seeds then, and continue to love about them now, is that, as with many worthwhile things, they are about the process, as much an activity as a food.

From Eater

This helped confirm economic activity in the third-quarter has greatly surprised to the upside.

From Fortune

For participating in activities like swimming and yoga and completing health screenings and immunizations, users can earn a maximum of around $280 over the program’s two-year run.

From Fortune

Noonan said his wife, a hairstylist, monitors the online activity of their daughters more closely than he does, and that their work is often a topic of conversation when the family convenes in the evening.

From Washington Post

He has also resisted changing the computer models, they said, including adding new types of data that’s standard at other firms such as tracking oil tankers and credit card activity.

From Fortune

The most recent activity had a high point of 3.6 on the Richter Scale.

From The Daily Beast

“There is nothing whatsoever in the video which supports the charges—it shows no criminal activity,” Bakir said.

From The Daily Beast

The masterpiece is huge, but structurally flawed and terribly vulnerable to seismic activity.

From The Daily Beast

Moreover, trucks, dust, and boomtown stress are the effects of any large-scale industrial activity.

From The Daily Beast

Some of them, including Kurnosova, escaped the country as they faced a possible jail term for their opposition activity.

From The Daily Beast

Other factors being equal, the amount of urea indicates the activity of metabolism.

From Project Gutenberg

In disease, the amount of solids depends mainly upon the activity of metabolism and the ability of the kidneys to excrete.

From Project Gutenberg

No young Cave Swallows were taken and gonads of adults were in various stages of reproductive activity.

From Project Gutenberg

It is the will directing the activity of the intellect into some particular channel and keeping it there.

From Project Gutenberg

Both animal and man seemed to be dozing, but they woke into activity when the sahib approached.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

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