Cambridge Cambridge English Dictionaries Online, the web's favourite learner dictionaries
  • Link to us
  • View basket
  • Help

Definition
A keyword: an important word to learn operation   Show phonetics
noun [C]
1 MEDICAL TREATMENT when a doctor cuts someone's body to remove or repair part of it
a heart/lung operation
a major/minor operation
My son's got to have an operation.

2 ORGANIZATION an organization or business
a large commercial operation

3 ACTIVITY an activity that is intended to achieve a particular purpose
a military/peacekeeping operation
a joint operation by French and Spanish police
an operation to smuggle drugs into Britain

4 in operation If a machine or system is in operation, it is working or being used.
The new rail link is now in operation.
Most of the machines are now back in operation.

The first and last word in dictionaries