Activation

How to spell activation

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce activation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does activation mean?

1. nounThe act or process of making something active, operational, or ready to use.

Activation in a sentence

• The new SIM card requires activation before any calls can be made.

• Online activation of the software took only a few minutes.

Where does activation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb agere, meaning 'to do, to drive, or to set in motion', whose past participle stem actus gave rise to a large family of English words about action and movement. From actus came the Latin adjective activus, 'practical' or 'full of action', which passed through Old French as 'actif' before settling into English as 'active'. The verb 'activate', meaning 'to make active', was then built on that adjective, and 'activation' is the noun naming the result or process of doing so. The word became common in scientific and technical English from the nineteenth century onwards, describing everything from chemical reactions being set off to switches and accounts being turned on. The same agere root quietly powers a host of relatives such as 'agent', 'agile', 'agenda', and 'react', and the steady 'act' spine is the easiest way to remember the spelling: keep the plain 'activ-' core and add '-ation'.

How the word is built

• act- (from Latin agere: to do, drive)
• -ive (forming an adjective)
• -ate (verb-forming)
• -ion (noun of action)