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Action vs Life - What's the difference?

action | life |

As a noun action

is something done so as to accomplish a purpose.

As an interjection action

is demanding or signifying the start of something, usually an act or scene of a theatric performance.

As a verb action

is (management) to act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.

As a proper noun life is

(christian science) god.

action

English

(wikipedia action)

Noun

(en noun)
  • Something done so as to accomplish a purpose.
  • A way of motion or functioning.
  • Knead bread with a rocking action .
  • A fast-paced activity.
  • an action movie
  • A mechanism; a moving part or assembly.
  • a rifle action
  • (music): The mechanism, that is the set of moving mechanical parts, of a keyboard instrument, like a piano, which transfers the motion of the key to the sound-making device.Marshall Cavendish Corporation Growing Up with Science p.1079
  • (slang) sexual intercourse.
  • She gave him some action .
  • The distance separating the strings and the fretboard on the guitar.
  • (military) Combat.
  • He saw some action in the Korean War.
  • (legal) A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio ).
  • (mathematics) A mapping from a pairing of mathematical objects to one of them, respecting their individual structures. The pairing is typically a Cartesian product or a tensor product. The object that is not part of the output is said to act'' on the other object. In any given context, ''action'' is used as an abbreviation for a more fully named notion, like group action or ''left group action.
  • The event or connected series of events, either real or imaginary, forming the subject of a play, poem, or other composition; the unfolding of the drama of events.
  • (art, painting and sculpture) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
  • (bowling) spin put on the bowling ball.
  • (business, obsolete, a Gallicism) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.
  • * Burke
  • The Euripus of funds and actions .

    Derived terms

    * actioner * action hero * action item * action man * action movie * action star * actions speak louder than words * direct action * ! * lost in action * missing in action * piece of the action * social action * take action

    See also

    * deed *

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually an act or scene of a theatric performance.
  • The director yelled ‘Action !’ before the camera started rolling.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (management) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2004
  • , publisher=Pearson Education , author=Ros Jay, Richard Templar , title=Fast Thinking Manager's Manual , edition=Second edition , chapter=Fast thinking: project , section=Fast Thinking Leader citation , isbn=9780273681052 , page=276 , passage=‘Here, give me the minutes of Monday’s meeting. I’ll action your points for you while you get on and sort out the open day.’}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=2005
  • , publisher=Routledge , author=Fritz Liebreich , title=Britain's Navel and Political Reaction to the Illegal Immigration of Jews to Palestine, 1945-1948 , chapter=The physical confrontation: interception and diversion policies in theory and practice citation , isbn=9780714656373 , page=196 , passage=Violent reactions from the Jewish authorities were expected and difficulties of actioning the new guidelines were foreseen.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=2007
  • , publisher=The Stationery Office , editor= , author=Great Britain: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman , title=Tax Credits: Getting it wrong? 5th report session 2006-2007 , chapter=Case study: 11257 , section=Chapter 2: Changes and developments since June 2005 citation , isbn=9780102951172 , page=26 , passage=HMRC said that one reason they had not actioned her appeal was because she had said in her appeal form ‘I am appealing against the overpayment for childcare for 2003-04, 2004-05’, thus implying she was disputing her ‘overpayment’.}}
  • (transitive, chiefly, archaic) To initiate a legal action against someone.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1856
  • , publisher=Stringer & Townsend , author=Thomas Chandler Haliburton , title=The Attaché: or Sam Slick in England , section=Chapter XLVII: The Horse Stealer; or All Trades Have Tricks But Our Own , edition=New Revised Edition citation , page=270 , passage=‘I have no business to settle with you—arrest me, Sir, at your peril and I’ll action you in law for false imprisonment.’}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1844
  • , year_published= , publisher=T. C. Newby , author=Robert Mackenzie Daniel , title=The Grave Digger: A novel by the author of The Scottish Heiress , volume=I , section=Chapter IX: How the Grave-differ entertained a lady citation , pages=189-190 , passage=“Scrip threatened me at first with an action for slander—he spoke of actions to the wrong man though—action! no, no no. I should have actioned him—ha! ha! [...]”}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1871
  • , year_published=2002 , publisher=Oxford University Press US , author=Michael Shermer , quotee=(Alfred Russell Wallace) , title=In Darwin’s shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russell Wallace , section=Chapter 10. Heretic Personality citation , isbn=9780195148305 , page=261 , passage=I have actioned him for Libel, but he won’t plead, and says he will make himself bankrupt & won’t pay a penny.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1996
  • , publisher=Boydell & Brewer , author=Darryl Mark Ogier , title=Reformation and Society in Guernsey , chapter=Discipline: Enforcement , section=Part Two: The Calvinist Regime citation , isbn=9780851156033 , page=148 , passage=In 1589 the Court went so far as to effect a reconciliation between Michel le Petevin and his wife after she actioned him for ill treatment and adultery with their chambermaid.}}

    Usage notes

    * The verb sense (term) is rejected by some usage authorities., page 3

    References

    * OED 2nd edition 1989 * Notes:

    life

    English

    (wikipedia life)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • The state that follows birth, and precedes death; the state of being alive and living.
  • :
  • *{{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty
  • , date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
  • #A .
  • #:
  • #*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.}}
  • #(lb) A status possessed by any of a number of entities, including animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and sometimes viruses, which have the properties of replication and metabolism.
  • (lb) A period of time.
  • #The period during which one (a person, an animal, a plant, a star) is alive.
  • #*
  • #*:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
  • #*1916', (Ezra Meeker), ''The Busy '''Life of Eighty-Five Years of Ezra Meeker
  • #The span of time during which an object operates.
  • #:
  • #The period of time during which an object is recognizable.
  • #:
  • #(lb) A life sentence; a term of imprisonment of a convict until his or her death.
  • (lb) Personal existence.
  • #(lb) The essence of the manifestation and the foundation of the being.
  • #*1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), , Ch.VI:
  • #*:"I realize as never before how cheap and valueless a thing is life'. '''Life''' seems a joke, a cruel, grim joke. You are a laughable incident or a terrifying one as you happen to be less powerful or more powerful than some other form of ' life which crosses your path; but as a rule you are of no moment whatsoever to anything but yourself. You are a comic little figure, hopping from the cradle to the grave. Yes, that is our trouble—we take ourselves too seriously; but Caprona should be a sure cure for that." She paused and laughed.
  • #(lb) The subjective and inner manifestation of the individual.
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life'. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as ' life -like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.}}
  • #The world in general; existence.
  • #:
  • #A worthwhile existence.
  • #:
  • #Animation; spirit; vivacity.
  • #*(Henry Felton) (1679-1740)
  • #*:No notion of life and fire in fancy and in words.
  • #*(William Wordsworth) (1770-1850)
  • #*:That gives thy gestures grace and life .
  • #The most lively component or participant.
  • #*1970 , Mathuram Bhoothalingam, The finger on the lute: the story of Mahakavi Subramania Bharati, National Council of Educational Research and Training, p.87:
  • #*:"Don't I know that it is you who is the life of this house. Two delightful children!"
  • #*1998 , Monica F. Cohen, Professional domesticity in the Victorian novel: Women, work and home, Cambridge University Press, page 32:
  • #*:And he is the life of the party at the Musgroves for precisely this reason: the navy has made him into a great storyteller.
  • #Something which is inherently part of a person's existence, such as job, family, a loved one, etc.
  • #:
  • #(lb) Social life.
  • #:
  • #*
  • #*:It is never possible to settle down to the ordinary routine of life at sea until the screw begins to revolve. There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.
  • #A biography.
  • #:
  • #*(Conyers Middleton) (1683-1750)
  • #*:Writers of particular lives are apt to be prejudiced in favour of their subject.
  • (lb) One of the player's chances to play, lost when a mistake is made.
  • :
  • Quotations

    * (sense) 1994: Violet Quill , Robert Ferro: *: Most things in life , including life itself, seemed to have articulated sections, discrete and separate and straightforward.

    Synonyms

    * (sense) existence, experience * (the world in general) time

    Antonyms

    * (the state that precedes death) death * (biology) coma * (philosophy) void

    Derived terms

    * all one's life's worth * artificial life * biological life * dog's life * get a life * get life * give life * have the time of one's life +* high life * lifeboat * life coach * life-buoy * life-force * life form * life's a bitch * life is like a box of chocolates * life's not all skittles and beer * life jacket * lifeblood * lifelike * lifeline * life line * life of the party * life plan * life-saver * lifestyle * lifetime * life vest * lifework * lose one's life * love life * meaning of life * quality of life * real life * set for life * shelf life * social life * this is the life * that's life * to save one's life

    Statistics

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    Anagrams

    * (l) * (l) 1000 English basic words