عمل

What it means

عمل (amal) means an action, a deed, an act, or a surgical operation. It enters Persian from Arabic, where the root ع-م-ل (a-m-l) carries the core sense of doing or working. In everyday Persian speech عمل کردن (amal kardan) means to act, to function, or to do something in practice, as opposed to merely talking about it. In medical contexts عمل on its own means a surgery or operation: عمل کردن in this setting means to operate. The plural اعمال (a’mâl) means deeds in the religious or moral sense, as in the record of one’s acts. The compound عملی (amali) means practical or applied, contrasted with نظری (nazari, theoretical), a distinction that comes up constantly in education and engineering.

How to use it

• حرف نزن، عمل کن (harf nazan, amal kon) “Stop talking, take action.”
• فردا عملم هست (fardâ amal-am hast) “I have surgery tomorrow.”
• این دارو عمل نکرد (in dâru amal nakard) “This medicine didn’t work.”
• درس عملیه یا نظری؟ (dars amalie yâ nazarie?) “Is the course practical or theoretical?”

Cultural note

The phrase حرف نزن، عمل کن (stop talking, take action) is a cultural touchstone in Persian, reflecting a high value placed on demonstrated effort over words. Iranian culture has a rich tradition of proverbs that distinguish between claims and deeds, and عمل sits at the center of that distinction. In a religious context, the phrase حساب اعمال (hesâb-e a’mâl), the accounting of one’s deeds, refers to divine judgment and appears in Nowruz and Muharram contexts alike.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab