operation
op·e·ra·tion/ˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/noun
operation is spelled O-P-E-R-A-T-I-O-N, 4 syllables: op·e·ra·tion. The wrong spelling people search most is opration: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 167 of all searches for the word. Operation is a noun meaning “The method by which a device performs its function”. The plural of operation is operations.
How many letters and syllables are in operation?
| Letters | 9: O-P-E-R-A-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: op·e·ra·tion |
| In writing | 83 times per million words; the 1,272nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, opration, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell operation?
Operation is spelled O-P-E-R-A-T-I-O-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 168 of the searches for operation in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is operation?
Operation appears 83 times per million words in written English, the 1,272nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce operation?
- UK /ˌɒp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
- US /ˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
- US /ˌɑ.pɚˈeɪ.ʃən/
Operation has 4 syllables, split op·e·ra·tion in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-operation.wav, En-us-operation.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with operation?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as operation from its last stressed vowel (/eɪʃən/):
- situation
- association
- population
- administration
- organization
- application
- location
- generation
- foundation
- conversation
- investigation
- communication
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of operation
- operations plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does operation mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The method by which a device performs its function.
It is dangerous to look at the beam of a laser while it is in operation.
- 2
The method or practice by which actions are done.
- 3
The act or process of operating (verb): agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral.
- 4
A planned undertaking.
The police ran an operation to get vagrants off the streets.
- 5
A business or organization.
We run our operation from a storefront.
- 6
A surgical procedure.
She had an operation to remove her appendix.
- 7
A procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands).
The number of operands associated with an operation is called its arity; an operation of arity 2 is called a binary operation.
- 8
A function which maps zero or more (but typically two) operands to a single output value.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate operation?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of operation: op.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Operation in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | opération, fonctionnement, exploitation , gestion |
| German | Betrieb , Operation , Verknüpfung |
| Portuguese | operação , funcionamento , cirurgia |
| Spanish | operación |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.