operation

American  

[op-uh-rey-shuhn] / ˌɒp əˈreɪ ʃən /

noun

operations plural

1. an act or instance, process, or manner of functioning or operating.

2. the state of being operative (usually preceded by in orinto ).

   a rule no longer in operation.

3. the power to act; efficacy, influence, or force.

4. the exertion of force, power, or influence; agency.

   the operation of alcohol on the mind.

5. a process of a practical or mechanical nature in some form of work or production.

   a delicate operation in watchmaking.

6. a course or procedure of productive or industrial activity.

   building operations.

7. a particular process or course.

   mental operations.

8. a business transaction, especially one of a speculative nature; deal.

   a shady operation.

9. a business, especially one run on a large scale.

   a multinational operation.

10. Surgery. a procedure aimed at restoring or improving the health of a patient, as by correcting a malformation, removing diseased parts, implanting new parts, etc.

11. Mathematics.

    1. a mathematical process, as addition, multiplication, or differentiation.

    2. the action of applying a mathematical process to a quantity or quantities.

12. Computers. any discrete activity or action that is performed by a computer, as reading, writing, processing, sending, or receiving data.

    The http request operation has timed out.

13. Military.

    1. a campaign, mission, maneuver, or action.

    2. Usually operations the conduct of a campaign, mission, etc.

    3. operations, a headquarters, office, or place from which a military campaign, air traffic to and from an airfield, or any of various other activities, is planned, conducted, and controlled.

    4. operations, the people who work at such a headquarters.

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operation British  

/ ˌɒpəˈreɪʃən /

noun

1. the act, process, or manner of operating

2. the state of being in effect, in action, or operative (esp in the phrases in or into operation )

3. a process, method, or series of acts, esp of a practical or mechanical nature

4. surgery any manipulation of the body or one of its organs or parts to repair damage, arrest the progress of a disease, remove foreign matter, etc

5. 1. a military or naval action, such as a campaign, manoeuvre, etc

   2. ( capital and prenominal when part of a name )

      Operation Crossbow

6. maths

   1. any procedure, such as addition, multiplication, involution, or differentiation, in which one or more numbers or quantities are operated upon according to specific rules

   2. a function from a set onto itself

7. a commercial or financial transaction

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operation Scientific  

/ ŏp′ə-rā′shən /

1. Medicine A surgical procedure for remedying an injury, ailment, defect, or dysfunction.

2. Mathematics A process or action, such as addition, substitution, transposition, or differentiation, performed in a specified sequence and in accordance with specific rules.

3. A logical operation.

4. Computer Science An action resulting from a single instruction.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• misoperation
  noun
• preoperation
  noun
• reoperation
  noun
• suboperation
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• operations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of operation

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English operacioun, oparacion, operation, from Latin operātiōn- (stem of operātiō ), equivalent to operāt(us) + -iōn- noun suffix of action or condition; see origin at operate

Explanation

Operation can refer to medical surgery, a military campaign, or mathematical methods, such as multiplication and division. Operation comes from the Latin word opus (“work”) and can refer to a whole range of practical activities and work. In driver's education, you learn the proper operation of a motor vehicle. If you’re going to make your lemonade franchise a success, you’re going to have to learn the rules for prudent operation of a business — how to run it — and you’ll also have to figure out the operation of a lemon squeezer.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

operation operations

I grated a ripe tomato into a bowl, an operation I find disproportionately satisfying.

From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026

This narrow window of operation makes it hard for commuters to take advantage of PHEV’s efficiency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

Tehran has previously indicated that it may be a replacement for a building within the Natanz complex used for the assembly of advanced centrifuges that was damaged after a suspected sabotage operation in July 2020.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026

The explosion, suspected to be caused by methane gas, tore through the mine near the capital of the resource-rich province of Balochistan on Thursday, sparking a rescue operation that ran through the night.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

The scanty group of strikebreakers—the first of many, I was sure—wouldn’t be enough to keep a slaughterhouse of this size in operation.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

“There just aren’t that many star-level players in the game,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said days before the deadline.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026

Main Road in Gwaelod-y-Garth and Heol Goch between Gwaelod-y-Garth and Pentyrch had to be closed for clean-up operations.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026

On Friday, rescue operations were terminated at a paper factory where a smokestack collapsed.

From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026

The tech giants buy or lease buildings and computing gear, then rent it out via their cloud operations to recoup what they spent over a period of a few years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

Armies of robot workers methodically dug new tunnels and built new dams and worked in new mining operations.

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

Related Words

• action
• activity
• affair
• agency
• application
• deal
• effort
• enterprise
• exercise
• force
• movement
• procedure
• process
• service
• transaction
• trip
• use
• work