Other forms: actions
Action is the doing of something, rather than talk about it. Take action, a call to action, actions speak louder.
Actions speak louder than words is the fixed proverb. In law, an action is a lawsuit. In film, action is what the director calls to start a take and also the genre. Note action point, the meeting term for something somebody must do; and that the Latin means the act of doing, from agere — the same root as agent and agenda.
1nounactionThe doing of something, rather than talk about it.
“We've talked about the problem for months; now it's time for action.”
2nounlawsuitA lawsuit.
“The workers have brought an action against the company for unpaid wages.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
action is a doing.
Latin actio comes from agere, to do or drive. Act, agent, agenda and exact come from the same doing.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂eǵ-
Middle English
accioun
English, today
action
Built from
From Middle English accioun. From Middle English accioun, accion, from Old French aucion, acciun, from Latin āctiō (“act of doing or making”), from āctus + action suffix -iō, perfect passive participle of agō (“do, act”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₂éǵeti. See also act, active. by surface analysis, en + act + ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA