operans

Operans is a Latin present active participle and adjective formed from the verb operare, meaning to work or to operate. The form translates as "working" or "operating" and is encountered in classical Latin texts as a descriptive participle or in compound terms. In Latin grammar, operans agrees with a noun in gender, number, and case, and can be used predicatively (as a predicate adjective) or attributively (before or after the noun). The term appears in ecclesiastical and medieval Latin writings, often in phrases describing something that performs or executes a function.

In linguistic discussions, operans is cited as an example of a participial adjective rather than a finite verb form. English-language translations render it according to context, typically as "working" or "operative." The term is not a common English lexeme outside scholarly contexts; it mostly appears in grammars, dictionaries, or translations of Latin texts.

A related modern term is operant, from the same root, used in psychology to describe a behavioral response that is reinforced or punished to influence its probability, as in operant conditioning.

Etymology: from the Latin operari "to work" or "to operate," with the participle based on the root oper- connected to opus, work.