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"operating" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often surgical (8 letters).
Definitions
Working, running, or controlling equipment.
Used in a sentence
“Don't touch the operating machinery.”
“The team arbitrarily chose that one operating frame of reference which we all use today.”
“Sure, academic medicine is fascinating — but operating is the reason I became a surgeon.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“On duty”9 letters
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