Dictionary

operation

Etymology

From Middle French operation, from Old French operacion, from Latin operātiō, from the verb operor ("I work"), from opus, operis ("work").

Pronunciation

(RP) IPA: /ˌɒp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
(America) IPA: /ˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/

Noun

operation

The method by which a device performs its function.
It is dangerous to look at the beam of a laser while it is in operation.
The method or practice by which actions are done.
The act or process of operating; agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral.
- 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC ↗, book I, page 8 ↗:
  the pain and sickness caused by manna are confessedly nothing but the effects of its operations on the stomach and guts.
- 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC ↗:
  Speculative painting, without the assistance of manual operation, can never attain to perfection.
A planned undertaking.
The police ran an operation to get vagrants off the streets.
The Katrina relief operation was considered botched.
A business or organization.
We run our operation from a storefront.
They run a multinational produce-supply operation.
(medicine) A surgical procedure.
She had an operation to remove her appendix.
(computing, logic, mathematics) A procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands)
1. (mathematics, more formally) a function which maps zero or more (but typically two) operands to a single output value.
The number of operands associated with an operation is called its arity; an operation of arity 2 is called a binary operation.
(military) A military campaign (e.g. Operation Desert Storm)
(obsolete) Effect produced; influence.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC ↗:
  The bards […] had great operation on the vulgar.