What's the different between an Operation and a Method?

Question

Hello,
I am wondering about the difference between operations and methods.
For example, if I am listing the operations of a stack, I would say:
1) Construct and Destroy
2) Push
3) Pop
4) Top
5) Empty
6) Clear
...but are some of these methods just method and not operations?
Again, for example if I am listing the operations for a Queue, I would say:
1) Enqueue
2) Dequeue
3) Head
4) Empty
5) Clear
...but as some of these methods are not unique (i.e. 4, 5 & 6 are the same for queue as it is for stack) then are some of these methods just methods and not operations?
Yours confused,
Wood

Answer 1

Ahem: "If formally, what are their definitions?"
Feel free to consult the JLS: [http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/j3TOC.html]
There is no definition or use of "operation" as you seem to be plying it, in the JLS. Note that constructors are not methods, according to the JLS definition of method.
On the other hand, if asked a question on an exam, I wouldn't stick to wooden definitions. I would use commonsense.