operation

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: op‧e‧ra‧tion

Noun

operation (countable and uncountable, plural operations)

1. 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. The method or practice by which actions are done.
3. The act or process of operating; agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral.
4. A planned undertaking.
   • The police ran an operation to get vagrants off the streets.
   • The Katrina relief operation was considered botched.
5. A business or organization.
   • We run our operation from a storefront.
   • They run a multinational produce-supply operation.
6. (medicine) A surgical procedure.
   • She had an operation to remove her appendix.
7. (computing, logic, mathematics) A procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands); (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.
8. (military) A military campaign (e.g. Operation Desert Storm)
9. (obsolete) Effect produced; influence.

Anagrams

• petronoia

Noun

operation (plural operationes)

1. operation (surgical procedure)

Noun

operation f (plural operations)

1. function; role

Noun

operation c

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