Word.ws English Dictionary

preaction

/pɹiˈækʃən/

preaction is the alternative form of pre-action.

Meaning of pre-action

Adjective

pre-action (not comparable)

  1. Before an action takes place, especially a legal action.
    • He concludes: "This letter is written in contemplation of legal proceedings, and is a pre-action protocol letter within the meaning of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998."2020 December 2, Barry Doe, “National Rail Timetable changes and reductions”, in Rail, page 73
    Antonyms:
    post-action

Noun

preaction (countable and uncountable, plural preactions)

  1. previous action
    • Now, if an iron be touched before, it varieth not in this manner; for then it admits not this magnetical impression, as being already informed by the loadstone, and polarily determined by its preaction.1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC

Forms of preaction

pluralpreactions

Origin of preaction

From pre- + action.

Questions about preaction

What does preaction mean?
Preaction means previous action.
What is preaction the alternative form of?
Preaction is the alternative form of pre-action.
What part of speech is preaction?
Preaction is a noun.
How do you pronounce preaction?
Preaction is pronounced /pɹiˈækʃən/.
What is the plural of preaction?
The plural of preaction is preactions.

Words near preaction in the dictionary

  1. preacquisitions
  2. preacquittal
  3. preact
  4. preacted
  5. preacting
  6. preaction
  7. preactions
  8. preactivate
  9. preactivated
  10. preactivates
  11. preactivating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preaction (page history and authors); pre-action (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “preaction.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/preaction. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.