Multiple actions taken in opposition to or in response to another action; reactions that work against or neutralize something.
From counter- (meaning 'against' or 'opposite') plus actions (plural of action, from Latin actio). The counter- prefix comes from Old French and Latin contra meaning 'against.'
Physics loves this word—every action has an equal and opposite reaction, which is literally a counteraction! It's Newton's third law in vocabulary form.
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