Operation

An operation, such as addition, is a mathematical function performed on one or more operands.^[2]

An operation may be unary, meaning it has only one operand. An example of a unary operator is negation, such as -x. The only operand of the minus sign is the x, so it is an unary operator.

An operation may be binary, meaning it has exactly two operands. Most operators in arithmetic are binary. One example is subtraction. In the expression 3x - 2, the subtraction operator combines the two terms, 3x and 2 using the subtraction operation. So subtraction is a binary operation.

There are other classes of operations outside the scope of this encyclopedia.