action
/ˈækʃən/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.25 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The way in which a mechanical device acts when used; especially a firearm.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The way in which a mechanical device acts when used; especially a firearm.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Knead bread with a rocking action."
- "a movie full of exciting action"
- "Pressing a piano key causes the action of the hammer on the string."
- "pump-action shotgun"
- "Spinola was hovering about the external fittings of the figure with unusual fussiness. When at length he released the left hand it seemed for an almost perceptible moment that the action hung. Then the arm descended and carried out the discard."
- "He then took from under his shirts in another drawer a very flat ·25 Beretta automatic with a skeleton grip, extracted the clip and the single round in the barrel and whipped the action to and fro several times, finally pulling the trigger on the empty chamber."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti Proto-Italic *agō Latin agō Latin āctum Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin āctiō Old French aucionbor. Middle English accioun English action From Middle English accioun, accion, from Old French aucion, acciun, from Latin āctiō(n) (“act of doing or making”), from āct(us) + action suffix -iō(n), perfect passive participle of agere (“do, act”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti. See also act, active. By surface analysis, act + -ion.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₂eǵ-, accioun, aucion, āctiō, *h₂éǵeti
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈækʃən/
- British English: /ˈækʃən̩/
Usage
Inflected Forms
actions (plural)
action! (canonical)
more action (comparative)
most action (superlative)
actions (present, singular)
actioning (participle, present)
actioned (participle, past)
actioned (past)