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Photo of people running a race.

List of action and motion words

Ways of moving around and things you can do with your body. Many of these overlap with the verbs category.

View in the Videographic Dictionary

Photo of a baby crawling
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Cis forCrawl

Crawling is moving along on your hands and knees. It is easier to keep your balance on all fours than it is to walk on two legs, so babies almost always learn to crawl before they learn to walk.
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Cis forCrouch

Crouching is bending or stooping down low to the ground. Crouching can be very similar to squatting. The man in the picture is crouching down so he can take a photograph of something from a good angle.

Dis forDive

Diving is a sport where you jump into the water, usually from a small platform. Some people dive in so they can start swimming faster. Sometimes people have the diving board set up really high so between jumping off and landing in the water they have time to do lots of acrobatic twists and turns. Usually when you dive into the water, you want to make as small a splash as possible.
Photo of a soldier dragging a wounded comrade
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Dis forDrag

You drag something when you pull it along with much effort. Generally when you drag something, most of it is on the ground and you have to overcome a lot of friction. People often drag things when they don't have something like a wheelbarrow or trolley to help them, and they are too heavy to carry.

Eis forEmbrace

Embrace is another word for hug, a motion where two people wrap their arms around one another. An embrace is usually a form of affection.

Fis forFight

When two or more people or animals get angry with each other, sometimes they will fight, and try and hurt each other with words or their fists. Sometimes people fight for money, as in a boxing match or street fighting. Animals often fight with each other over food, nesting space, or at breeding season. You can also use fight as a noun, as in "those people are having a fight".
Photo of a flapping bird
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Fis forFlap

You flap something when you move it backwards and forwards around a hinge point. Birds flap their wings to fly, people flap their arms for fun and a loose window shutter will flap in the wind.
Flying is a way of moving through the air. Most things that fly do it because they have wings, but helicopters fly by using a rotor.
Photo of a running horse
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Gis forGait

A gait is a way of moving, usually applied to animals like horses. Some examples of different gaits are a walk, run, trot, canter or gallop. Gait is not the same as gate.
Photo of a horse galloping
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Gis forGallop

A gallop is the fastest gait of a horse. It has a beat of four, and all of the horse's feet are off the ground at once as it is galloping.