Word.ws English Dictionary

subaction

subaction noun: the act of reducing to any state, such as of mixing two bodies completely.

Noun (1)

subaction (plural subactions)

  1. (obsolete) The act of reducing to any state, such as of mixing two bodies completely.
    • there are of concoction two periods ; the one assimilation , or absolute conversion and subaction ; the other maturation1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “IX. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William...
    • the whole masse of spawne may also bee imbibed by bole or frankincense or minium or cerusse incorporated by agitation or subaction.a. 1682, Thomas Browne, Observations on frogs

Noun (2)

subaction (plural subactions)

  1. An action that makes up part of a more complex action.
    • This is so because efforts, exertions, and endeavorings, if they were to exist, would need to be actions themselves, or parts of actions, or subactions or behaviors of some sort […]2012, Timothy O'Connor, Constantine Sandis, A Companion to the Philosophy of Action

Forms of subaction

pluralsubactions

Origin of subaction

Compare Latin subactio a working up, discipline.

From sub- + action.

Questions about subaction

What does subaction mean?
Subaction means the act of reducing to any state, such as of mixing two bodies completely.
What part of speech is subaction?
Subaction is a noun.
What is the plural of subaction?
The plural of subaction is subactions.

Words near subaction in the dictionary

  1. subacrosomal
  2. subact
  3. subacted
  4. subacting
  5. subactinomorphic
  6. subaction
  7. subactions
  8. subactivating
  9. subactive
  10. subactivities
  11. subactivity

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subaction (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: “subaction.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subaction. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.