Reaction1. (n.) Any action in response to another action or force; counter tendency; movement in a contrary direction; reverse action.
2. (n.) The mutual or reciprocal action of chemical agents upon each other, or the action upon such chemical agents of some form of energy, as heat, light, or electricity, resulting in a chemical change in one or more of these agents, with the production of new compounds or the manifestation of distinctive characters. See Flame.
3. (n.) An action induced by vital resistance to some other action; depression or exhaustion of vital force consequent on overexertion or overstimulation; heightened activity and overaction succeeding depression or shock.
4. (n.) The force which a body subjected to the action of a force from another body exerts upon the latter body in the opposite direction.
5. (n.) Backward tendency or movement after revolution, reform, or great progress in any direction.
Thesaurus Entries
Bourbonism, Toryism, acknowledgment, action and reaction, aeromotor, affect, affection, answer, answering, antagonism, antipathy, antiphon, assumption, attitude, back answer, back talk, backchat, backlash, backset, backsliding, backward motion, backward step, backwardness, backwash, brain disease, challenge, clashing, climate of opinion, clout, collision, combative reaction, comeback, common belief, community sentiment, compensation, complaint, conceit, concept, conception, conclusion, conflict, confutation, consensus gentium, conservatism, conservativeness, consideration, contradiction, contraposition, contrariety, counteraction, counterbalance, counterposition, counterworking, crack-up, crankiness, crotchetiness, defiance, demur, die-hardism, dispute, dissent, dissentience, echo, effect, emotion, emotional charge, emotional disorder, emotional instability, emotional shade, estimate, estimation, ethos, evasive reply, experience, extreme right, extreme right wing, extreme rightism, eye, feedback, feeling, feeling tone, force, foreboding, fractiousness, friction, functional nervous disorder, general belief, gut reaction, heartthrob, idea, impact, impress, impression, imprint, insanity, interference, jet power, jet propulsion, judgment, kick, know-nothingism, laissez-faireism, lapse, lights, maladjustment, manic-depressive psychosis, mark, melancholia, mental disorder, mental illness, mind, monarchism, mystique, negativism, nervous breakdown, nervous disorder, neurosis, nonconformity, noncooperation, notion, objection, observation, obstinacy, old school tie, opinion, opposition, opposure, oppugnance, oppugnancy, paranoia, passion, passive resistance, personal judgment, personality disorder, perverseness, point of view, popular belief, position, posture, power plant, presentiment, presumption, prevailing belief, print, problems in living, profound sense, protest, psychosis, public belief, public opinion, radical rightism, ram-jet propulsion, reaction propulsion, reactionariness, reactionaryism, ready reply, rebuff, recalcitrance, recalcitrancy, recalcitration, receipt, recession, recidivation, recidivism, reciprocation, recoil, reentry, reflex, refluence, reflux, refractoriness, regress, regression, rejoinder, relapse, reluctance, remonstrance, renitence, renitency, repartee, repellence, repellency, repercussion, replication, reply, repost, reprisal, repugnance, repulse, repulsion, rescript, rescription, resistance, resojet propulsion, respondence, response, responsion, responsory, retaliation, retort, retroaction, retrocession, retroflexion, retrogradation, retrogression, retrusion, return, revenge, reverberation, revolt, rightism, riposte, rocket power, rocket propulsion, rollback, royalism, schizophrenia, sensation, sense, sentiment, setback, short answer, sight, snappy comeback, social Darwinism, social maladjustment, stance, stand, standpattism, sternway, swimming upstream, theory, thinking, thought, throwback, turbojet propulsion, ultraconservatism, uncooperativeness, undercurrent, unprogressiveness, view, way of thinking, withstanding, witty reply, witty retort, yes-and-no answer