Operation

How to spell operation

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce operation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does operation mean?

1. nounAn organised activity, process, or way in which something works or is carried out.
2. nounA medical procedure in which a surgeon works on the body to treat injury or disease.

Operation in a sentence

• The rescue operation lasted well into the night.

• She recovered quickly after the knee operation.

• The factory keeps its day-to-day operation running smoothly.

• The surgeon explained the risks of the operation before booking a date.

Where does operation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin operatio, meaning 'a working' or 'an act of labour', which was built on the verb operari, 'to work, to labour, to take pains over something'. That verb in turn came from opus, the Latin noun for 'work' or 'effort', a root that also survives in 'opera' (literally a body of works) and 'opus' itself. English borrowed operation through Old French in the late 1300s, at first to describe the working or action of something, and over the centuries the sense fanned out: a military campaign, a surgical procedure, a mathematical process, and a business enterprise. The spelling stays faithful to the Latin: a single p, a single r, and the smooth -ation ending pronounced as a relaxed schwa, which is exactly where careless writers can slip.

How the word is built

• oper- (from Latin opus/operari: work, labour)
• -ation (noun suffix denoting an action or process)