Take Action Against "Actionable"

Dun & Bradstreet tells us it’s the “trusted leader in delivering actionable information solutions that drive your business to success.” 

Intelliseek sells a product called CIS that “converts information found in customer postings and media coverage into actionable reports.”

CashEdge, Inc., offers “Actionable Aggregation.” 

Why on earth, I wonder, do so many companies promise to expose their clients to lawsuits?  That’s what the word “actionable” means:  giving cause for legal action.  It’s still the one and only dictionary definition.

The copywriters for Dun & Bradstreet, et al, clearly think that “actionable” means “something you can act on.”  That’s a logical conclusion.  It’s probably what the word should mean.  But it doesn’t.

If the “actionable” is misused often enough, and long enough, it will acquire a secondary definition.  But, in the meantime, the misuse will draw a double-take and possibly a raising of hackles from readers familiar with the dictionary definition of the word.

I hate to raise a problem without having a perfect solution.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a word that means what “actionable” ought to.  All I can suggest are near misses like performable, doable, practicable, operational, workable, executable, or a longer construction like “reports you can act on.” 

Those may seem like weak substitutes.  But at least they aren’t actionable.

                                                                  September, 2001

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