different between action vs step

English

Etymology

From Middle English accion, from Old French aucion,acciun, from Latin ?cti? (“act of doing or making”), from ?ctus, perfect passive participle of ag? (“do, act”), + action suffix -i?; see act.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æk.??n/
• Rhymes: -æk??n
• Hyphenation: ac?tion

Noun

action (countable and uncountable, plural actions)

1. Something done, often so as to accomplish a purpose.
2. A way of motion or functioning.

3. Fast-paced activity.

4. A mechanism; a moving part or assembly.

5. (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.
6. (music) The distance separating the strings and the fretboard on a guitar.
7. (slang) Sexual intercourse.

8. (military) Combat.

9. (law) A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).
10. (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.
11. (physics) The product of energy and time, especially the product of the Lagrangian and time.
12. 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.
13. (art, painting and sculpture) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
14. (bowling) spin put on the bowling ball.
15. (obsolete) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.
    • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol. IV, ch. 106:

      So saying he presented him with two actions of above two thousand livres each.

    • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

      the Euripus of funds and actions

Synonyms

• (something done): deed; see also Thesaurus:action

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? German: Action
• ? Russian: ???? (ekšn)

Translations

See also

• deed
• Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

References

• action on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Interjection

action!

1. Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually a performance.

   Antonym: cut

Translations

Verb

action (third-person singular simple present actions, present participle actioning, simple past and past participle actioned)

1. (transitive, management) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
2. (transitive, chiefly archaic) To initiate a legal action against someone.

Usage notes

• The verb sense action is rejected by some usage authorities.

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989
• Notes:

Further reading

• action in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• action in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Catino, actino-, atonic, cation, cation-?

French

Etymology

From Old French acciun, aucion, etymologically reconstructed in Middle French to resemble the Latin acti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ak.sj??/
• Homophone: axion

Noun

action f (plural actions)

1. action, act, deed

2. campaign

3. stock, share

4. (Switzerland) a special offer

Derived terms

Further reading

• “action” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• cation, contai

Interlingua

Noun

action (plural actiones)

1. action

Related terms

• active
• activitate

Middle English

Noun

action

1. Alternative form of accion

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French acciun, aucion, etymologically reconstructed to resemble the Latin acti?.

Noun

action f (plural actions)

1. action; act

Descendants

• French: action

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English accion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ak???n/

Noun

action (plural actions)

1. action

Verb

action (third-person singular present actions, present participle actionin, past actiont, past participle actiont)

1. to action

References

• Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

English

Etymology

From Middle English steppen, from Old English steppan (“to step, go, proceed, advance”), stepe (“step”), from Proto-Germanic *stapjan? (“to step”), *stapiz (“step”), from Proto-Indo-European *stab- (“to support, stomp, curse, be amazed”). Cognate with West Frisian stappe (“to step”), North Frisian stape (“to walk, trudge”), Dutch stappen (“to step, walk”), Walloon steper (“to walk away, leave”), German stapfen (“to trudge, stomp, plod”) and further to Slavic Polish st?pa? (“to stomp, stamp, step, tread”), Russian ??????? (stupat?) and Polish stopie? (“step, stair, rung, degree”), Russian ??????? (stepen?). Related to stamp, stomp.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /st?p/
• Hyphenation: step
• Rhymes: -?p
• Homophone: steppe

Noun

step (plural steps)

1. An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace.

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:step.
2. A rest, or one of a set of rests, for the foot in ascending or descending, as a stair, or a rung of a ladder.
   • 1624, Sir Henry Wotton, The Elements Of Architecture

     The breadth of every single step or stair should be never less than one foot.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:step.
3. A distinct part of a process; stage; phase.

4. A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus.

5. The space passed over by one movement of the foot in walking or running.

   • To derive two or three general principles of motion from phenomena, and afterwards to tell us how the properties and actions of all corporeal things follow from those manifest principles, would be a very great step in philosophy.

6. A small space or distance.

7. A print of the foot; a footstep; a footprint; track.
8. A gait; manner of walking.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     Warwick passed through one of the wide brick arches and traversed the building with a leisurely step.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:step.
9. Proceeding; measure; action; act.
   • 1717, Alexander Pope, Preface to his collection of poems

     The reputation of a man depends on the first steps he makes in the world.

   • c. 1792, William Cowper, The Needless Alarm

     Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away.

   • 1879, George Washington Cable, Old Creole Days

     I have lately taken steps […] to relieve the old gentleman's distresses.

   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Moon has also requested that government officials take additional steps to help fight pollution, his spokesman said.

10. (in the plural) A walk; passage.

    • Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree.

11. (in the plural) A portable framework of stairs, much used indoors in reaching to a high position.
12. (nautical) A framing in wood or iron which is intended to receive an upright shaft; specifically, a block of wood, or a solid platform upon the keelson, supporting the heel of the mast.
13. (machines) One of a series of offsets, or parts, resembling the steps of stairs, as one of the series of parts of a cone pulley on which the belt runs.
14. (machines) A bearing in which the lower extremity of a spindle or a vertical shaft revolves.
15. (music) The interval between two contiguous degrees of the scale.

    Usage note: The word tone is often used as the name of this interval; but there is evident incongruity in using tone for indicating the interval between tones. As the word scale is derived from the Italian scala, a ladder, the intervals may well be called steps.

16. (kinematics) A change of position effected by a motion of translation.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of William Kingdon Clifford to this entry?)

17. (programming) A constant difference between consecutive values in a series.

18. (slang) A stepsibling.

Synonyms

• stride

Hyponyms

• back step, half step, etc. see under back, half, etc.
• cyclic step

Derived terms

• cross-step (a step in which one foot is crossed over another; the action of taking such a step or steps)
• step-by-step
• step-free
• stepmeal
• stepwise

Related terms

Translations

Verb

step (third-person singular simple present steps, present participle stepping, simple past stepped or (dated) stept or (obsolete) stope, past participle stepped or (dated) stept or (obsolete) stopen)

1. (intransitive) To move the foot in walking; to advance or recede by raising and moving one of the feet to another resting place, or by moving both feet in succession.
2. (intransitive) To walk; to go on foot; especially, to walk a little distance.

3. (intransitive) To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely.

   • Home from his Morning-Task , the Swain retreats, His flock before him stepping to the fold.

4. (intransitive, figuratively) To move mentally; to go in imagination.
5. (transitive) To set, as the foot.
   • 2010, Charles E. Miller, Winds of Mercy: 40 Short Stories (page 219)

     One of the women, Elsie, stepped her foot inside to help the woman.

6. (transitive, nautical) To fix the foot of (a mast) in its step; to erect.
   • 1898, Joseph Conrad, Youth

     We put everything straight, stepped the long-boat's mast for our skipper, who was in charge of her, and I was not sorry to sit down for a moment.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• step-

Further reading

• step in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• step at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• EPTs, ESTP, PETs, Pest, Sept, Sept., TPEs, Teps, pest, pets, sept, sept-, spet

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?p/

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

step f

1. steppe

Declension

Etymology 2

From English step

Noun

step m inanimate

1. tap dance

Declension

Further reading

• step in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• step in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English step (“footrest on a bicycle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?p/
• Hyphenation: step
• Rhymes: -?p

Noun

step f (plural steps, diminutive stepje n)

1. kick scooter

   Synonyms: autoped, trottinette

2. (dated) A mounting bracket on a bicycle.

Derived terms

• steppen

Indonesian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s(?)t?p/
• Hyphenation: stèp

Etymology 1

From English step, from Middle English steppen, from Old English steppan (“to step, go, proceed, advance”), stepe (“step”), from Proto-Germanic *stapjan? (“to step”), *stapiz (“step”), from Proto-Indo-European *stab- (“to support, stomp, curse, be amazed”).

Noun

stèp (first-person possessive stepku, second-person possessive stepmu, third-person possessive stepnya)

1. step; pace, gait.

Etymology 2

From Dutch stuip (“convulsion”), from Middle Dutch st?pe, stupen, stuypen (“convulsion”, literally “to duck, to bend down”), from Old English stupian (“to stoop, bend over”) (compare to English stoop (“to bend”)), from Old Norse stúpa, from Proto-Germanic *st?p?n?, *st?pijan? (“to stand out”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewb- (“to push, butt, knock”).

Noun

stèp (first-person possessive stepku, second-person possessive stepmu, third-person possessive stepnya)

1. (colloquial, medicine) convulsion.

   Synonym: setip

   Synonyms: sawan, kejang

Further reading

• “step” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Middle English

Noun

step

1. Alternative form of steppe

Polish

Etymology

From Ukrainian ???? (step).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?p/

Noun

step m inan

1. (often in the plural) steppe

Declension

Further reading

• step in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• step in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Spanish

Etymology

From English step.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?step/, [?st?ep]

• IPA^(key): /es?tep/, [es?t?ep]

Noun

step m (uncountable)

1. step training