Action Stations: One Word, Many Trades
Action is the process of doing. Law, film, mechanics and the army each use the word for something entirely their own.
Action is the process of doing something. Few words are borrowed by more trades: in law an action is a lawsuit, in film it is the director's cue, on a piano it is the mechanism connecting keys to hammers, and in the army it is combat. Each field kept the sense of things being set in motion.
- The process of doing. *Take action.*
- A legal proceeding. *Bring an action.*
- Combat. *Killed in action.*
- A mechanism. *A piano action.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | action | Prompt action. |
| Plural | actions | Your actions matter. |
| Verb | action | Action the request. |
| Adjective | active | An active role. |
| Related | act | A brave act. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The council took action.General sense.
- He was missing in action.Military.
- Lights, camera, action.Film set.
Action in different fields
- Law — a civil lawsuit
- Film — the cue to begin filming
- Music — the mechanism of a piano or the string height on a guitar
- Military — engagement with the enemy
- Chemistry — the effect of one substance on another
From Latin *actionem*, a doing, from *agere*, to drive or do — the source of *agent*, *agenda*, *agile* and *exact*.
Can *action* be a verb?
In business English, yes: to action a request means to carry it out. Some readers dislike it, so implement or carry out is safer in formal writing.
Action or act?
An act is a single deed. Action is the process, or the doing considered as a whole.