From Middle English operacioun, from Old French operacion, from Latin operātiō, from the verb operor (“I work”), from opus, operis (“work”). Equivalent to operate +‎ -ion.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɒp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/

  • Audio (UK):

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• (General American, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, /ˌɑ.pɚˈeɪ.ʃən/

  • Audio (US):

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• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /ˌɒp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
• Hyphenation: op‧e‧ra‧tion
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

operation (countable and uncountable, plural operations)

1. (uncountable) 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.

2. (uncountable) The method or practice by which actions are done.
3. (uncountable) The act or process of operating (verb): agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral.

   Synonym: operating (noun)

   • 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.

4. (countable) A planned undertaking.

   The police ran an operation to get vagrants off the streets.

   The Katrina relief operation was considered botched.

5. (countable) A business or organization.

   We run our operation from a storefront.

   They run a multinational produce-supply operation.

6. (countable, medicine) A surgical procedure.

   She had an operation to remove her appendix.

   • 1750, W[illiam] Ellis, The Country Housewife's Family Companion […] , London: James Hodges; B. Collins, →OCLC, page 157:

     This done, ſhe performs the very ſame Operation on the other Side of the Cock's Body, and there takes out the other Stone; then ſhe ſtitches up the Wounds, and lets the Fowl go about as at other Times, till the Capon is fatted in a Coup, which is commonly done from Chriſtmas to Candlemas, and after.

8. (computing, logic, mathematics, countable) A procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands).

   Synonyms: function, transformation

   1. (mathematics, more formally, countable) 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.

9. (military, countable) A military campaign (e.g. Operation Desert Storm).
10. (obsolete, countable) Effect produced; influence.
    • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):

      The bards […] had great operation on the vulgar.

• (business or organization): mission operations

• → Japanese: オペレーション (operēshon)
• → Scottish Gaelic: opairèisean

• operation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• “operation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “operation”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• petronoia

operation (plural operationes)

1. operation (surgical procedure)

operation f (plural operations)

1. function; role
   • 1595, Michel de Montaigne, Essais:

     C'est tesmoignage de crudité et indigestion que de regorger la viande comme on l'a avallée. L'estomac n'a pas faict son operation, s'il n'a faict changer la façon et la forme a ce qu'on luy avoit donné à cuire.

     It's testament of rawness and indigestion when one regurgitates meat in the same state as one swallowed it. The stomach hasn't done its function if it hasn't change the shape and the form of what one has given it to cook.

• “operation”, in Anglo-Norman Dictionary, Aberystwyth University, 2022–2025

From Latin operātiō.

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operation c

1. an operation (planned undertaking)
2. (medicine) an operation
3. (mathematics) an operation
4. (military) an operation

• operation in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• operation in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• operation in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)