Dictionary

operations en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌɒp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃənz/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˌɒp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃənz/ (Canada, dialectal) of the US
• (US) audio
• /ˌɑ.pɚˈeɪ.ʃənz/ (General-American, dialectal) of Canada
• /ˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃənz/ (General-American, dialectal) of Canada

Meanings

1. (often, plural, plural-only) Any practically minded combination of business administration, management science, operations research, systems engineering, and industrial engineering.
   • They get the job done, but operations is the area in which they're weakest.
   • The first US service members to die in the conflict between the US and Iran were killed by a direct Iranian strike on a makeshift operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait on Sunday morning local time, a source familiar with the situation told CNN. 2026 March 2, Haley Britzky, “No warning, no siren: Six US service members killed in Iranian strike that hit makeshift operations center in Kuwait”, in CNN, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2026:
2. (form-of, plural) plural of operation
   form of operation
3. (often, plural, plural-only) The department or interdepartmental team within a company that works on optimizing the company's execution of such things.
   • The operations center was pregnant with dread.
   • She works in operations, and her job involves data analysis and business intelligence.

Forms