activity

American  

[ak-tiv-i-tee] / ækˈtɪv ɪ ti /

noun

• activities
  plural

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

Derived Forms

• nonactivity
  noun
• preactivity
  noun
• superactivity
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• activities
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of activity

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

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Explanation

An activity is something you do, or just the state of doing. You might plan some indoor activities for a rainy day, or you might just rely on watching your gerbils' activity in their cage. Usually, when you use an article like an or the in front of activity, you are referring to a specific event. For example, you might search for the best activity on the cruise ship to fill your afternoon — shuffleboard, anyone? If you take the article away, and you refer to activity, you are usually referring to action. If there is too much activity on the cruise ship dance floor, you might want to avoid that zone.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

activity activities

The DHS spokesperson declined to discuss reports of increased ICE activity in California.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026

Petti valued its remaining operating business at just $6.6 billion, calling mergers-and-acquisitions activity the “primary upside catalyst.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

China’s monthly batch of economic activity data is due Monday, offering the latest look at consumer demand, investment and industrial production.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

This gave the researchers a more detailed picture of the changing brain activity associated with emotional memory formation.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

Last time you checked, there’s no drive-in on Kindcreek, but as the road becomes rough, its asphalt splitting, you look to the right and see an island of activity and light.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

They enjoyed various activities and swimming, before getting ready for dinner in the evening.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

I didn’t really love a lot of time alone prior to that, and I would fill it with busyness or activities or whatever, because being alone felt a little anxiety-inducing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026

UniCredit is notably proposing to make cuts in Commerzbank’s international network, deemed too complex and inefficient, and to refocus the bank on its activities in Germany.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

It was one of the pioneers in issuing commercial paper to fund banks’ lending activities, without being a bank itself.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

Consequently, there was a sweeping investigation taking place of her activities, past and present, spearheaded by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

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Related Words

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

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