From Middle English accion, from Old French aucion, acciun, from Latin āctiō, from āctus + action suffix -iō, perfect passive participle of agere, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti; see also act, active.

Morphologically act + -ion.

• IPA: /ˈæk.ʃən/

action

1. The effort of performing or doing something.
2. Something done, often so as to accomplish a purpose.

   Coordinate terms: (what verbs can express) occurrence, state of being

3. A way of motion or functioning.

   Knead bread with a rocking action.

4. Fast-paced activity.

   a movie full of exciting action

5. The way in which a mechanical device acts when used; especially a firearm.

   Pressing a piano key causes the action of the hammer on the string.

   1. (firearms) The way in which cartridges are loaded, locked, and extracted from the mechanism.

      pump-action shotgun

6. (music) The mechanism, that is the set of moving mechanical parts, of a keyboard instrument, like a piano, which transfers the motion of the key to the sound-making device.

   The run in bar 12 is almost impossible with this piano's heavy action.

7. (music, lutherie) The distance separating the strings and the fingerboard on a string instrument.

   You're getting fret buzz because the action is too low.

8. (slang, typically with a quantifier) Sexual intercourse.

   She gave him some action.

   I hope to get a bit of action with the hot guy from the club.

9. (military) Combat.

   He saw some action in the Korean War.

10. (legal) A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).
11. (mathematics) A way in which each element of some algebraic structure transforms some other structure or set, in a way which respects the structure of the first. Formally, this may be seen as a morphism from the first structure into some structure of endomorphisms of the second; for example, a group action of a group G on a set S can be seen as a group homomorphism from G into the set of bijections on S (which form a group under function composition), while a module M over a ring R can be defined as an abelian group together with a ring homomorphism from R into the ring of group endomorphisms of M (which is also called the action of R on M).
12. (physics) The product of energy and time, especially the product of the Lagrangian and time.
13. (literature) The event or connected series of events, either real or imaginary, forming the subject of a play, poem, or other composition; the unfolding of the drama of events.
14. (art, painting and sculpture) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
15. (bowling) spin put on the bowling ball.
16. (obsolete) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.
    • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC ↗:

      So saying he presented him with two actions of above two thousand livres each.

    • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC ↗:

      the Euripus of funds and actions

17. (Christianity) A religious performance or solemn function, i.e. action sermon, a sacramental sermon in the Scots Presbyterian Church.
18. (science) A process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings).
19. (Misesian praxeology, Austrian economics) Purposeful behavior.
20. A demonstration by activists.

• (something done) deed; see also Thesaurus:action

• French: action
• German: Handlung, Aktion
• Italian: azione
• Portuguese: ação
• Russian: де́йствие
• Spanish: acción

• French: action
• German: Bewegung, Funktion
• Italian: azione
• Portuguese: ação
• Russian: де́йствие
• Spanish: acción

• French: action
• German: Action
• Italian: azione
• Portuguese: ação

• French: action
• German: Kampf
• Italian: azione
• Portuguese: ação
• Russian: бой

• French: action en justice, action légale
• German: Klage
• Italian: azione legale
• Portuguese: ação
• Russian: иск
• Spanish: acción

1. Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually a performance.

   Antonyms: cut

   The director yelled ‘Action!’ after the cameras started rolling.

• French: action
• Italian: azione
• Portuguese: ação
• Spanish: acción

action

1. (Manglish) arrogant

action (actions, present participle actioning; simple past and past participle actioned)

1. (transitive, management) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
2. (transitive, chiefly, archaic) To initiate a legal action against someone.