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Action vs Force - What's the difference?

action | force | Related terms |

Action is a related term of force.


As nouns the difference between action and force

is that action is something done so as to accomplish a purpose while force is force.

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.

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

    Related terms

    * act * agent * agency

    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:

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * English words suffixed with -tion ----

    force

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) force, fors, forse, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia force)
  • Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
  • :
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:He was, in the full force of the words, a good man.
  • Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
  • *(William Shakespeare), Henry VI, part II
  • *:which now they hold by force , and not by right
  • (lb) Anything that is able to make a big change in a person or thing.
  • A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body which is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn)
  • Something or anything that has the power to produce an effect upon something else.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=(Henry Petroski), volume=100, issue=2, page=112-3
    • , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Opening Doors , passage=A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.}}
  • (lb) A group that aims to attack, control, or constrain.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare), (Cymbeline)
  • *:Is Lucius general of the forces ?
  • *
  • *:"A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there.."
  • *{{quote-news, year=2004, date=April 15, work=The Scotsman
    • , title= Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer , passage=For Lothian and Borders Police, the early-morning raid had come at the end one of biggest investigations carried out by the force , which had originally presented a dossier of evidence on the murder of Jodi Jones to the Edinburgh procurator-fiscal, William Gallagher, on 25 November last year.}}
  • (lb) The ability to attack, control, or constrain.
  • :
  • (lb) A magic trick in which the outcome is known to the magician beforehand, especially one involving the apparent free choice of a card by another person.
  • (lb) Legal validity.
  • :
  • (lb) Either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry ", or lawful compulsion.
    • Usage notes
    * Adjectives often applied to "force": military, cultural, economic, gravitational, electric, magnetic, strong, weak, positive, negative, attractive, repulsive, good, evil, dark, physical, muscular, spiritual, intellectual, mental, emotional, rotational, tremendous, huge.
    Derived terms
    (Terms derived from "force") * air force * antiforce * brute force * centripetal force * centrifugal force * Coulomb force * Coriolis force * come into force * force field * force multiplier * force to be reckoned with * fundamental force * police force * spent force * task force * workforce

    Verb

    (forc)
  • (lb) To violate (a woman); to rape.
  • *:
  • *:For yf ye were suche fyfty as ye be / ye were not able to make resystence ageynst this deuyl / here lyeth a duchesse deede the whiche was the fayrest of alle the world wyf to syre Howel / duc of Bretayne / he hath murthred her in forcynge her / and has slytte her vnto the nauyl
  • *, II.1:
  • *:a young woman not farre from mee had headlong cast her selfe out of a high window, with intent to kill herselfe, only to avoid the ravishment of a rascally-base souldier that lay in her house, who offered to force her.
  • *, Bk.XVIII, Ch.xxi:
  • *:And I pray you for my sake to force yourselff there, that men may speke you worshyp.
  • (lb) To compel (someone or something) (to) do something.
  • *
  • *:Captain Edward Carlisle; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
  • *2011 , Tim Webb & Fiona Harvey, The Guardian , 23 March:
  • *:Housebuilders had warned that the higher costs involved would have forced them to build fewer homes and priced many homebuyers out of the market.
  • (lb) To constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of.
  • *, I.40:
  • *:Shall wee force the general law of nature, which in all living creatures under heaven is seene to tremble at paine?
  • (lb) To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb).
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:It stuck so fast, so deeply buried lay / That scarce the victor forced the steel away.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:to force the tyrant from his seat by war
  • *(John Webster) (c.1580-c.1634)
  • *:Ethelbert ordered that none should be forced into religion.
  • *2007 , (The Guardian) , 4 November:
  • *:In a groundbreaking move, the Pentagon is compensating servicemen seriously hurt when an American tank convoy forced them off the road.
  • (lb) To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force.
  • :
  • *2009 , "All things to Althingi", (The Economist) , 23 July:
  • *:The second problem is the economy, the shocking state of which has forced the decision to apply to the EU.
  • (lb) To forcibly open (a door, lock etc.).
  • :
  • To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
  • To create an out by touching a base in advance of a runner who has no base to return to while in possession of a ball which has already touched the ground.
  • :
  • (lb) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit that he/she does not hold.
  • (lb) To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
  • *(John Webster) (c.1580-c.1634)
  • *:What can the church force more?
  • (lb) To provide with forces; to reinforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • (lb) To allow the force of; to value; to care for.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:For me, I force not argument a straw.
    • Derived terms
    * enforce * forceful * forcible

    See also

    * Imperial unit: foot pound * metric unit: newton * coerce: To control by force.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable, Northern England) A waterfall or cascade.
  • * T. Gray
    • to see the falls or force of the river Kent

    Etymology 3

    See .

    Verb

    (forc)
  • To stuff; to lard; to farce.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit.

    Statistics

    *

    External links

    * * 1000 English basic words ----