Manual:$wgActionPaths

Details
To set 'pretty' URL paths for actions other than plain page views, add to this array. For instance: There must be an appropriate script or rewrite rule in place to handle these URLs.

Rewrite rules
This option needs an appropriate rewrite rule to work.

To rewrite most actions to a specific path, one could make the following changes to LocalSettings.php:

In Apache, code a rewrite rule similar to the following:

This will forward all requests to /action/actionword/title to MediaWiki's index.php which will parse the action and title according to your $wgActionPaths settings.

When configuring Apache mod_negotation to execute PHP scripts when using this method care should be taken not to cause 406 Not Acceptable errors that might in some cases expose a directory listing, see,. See also 21617.

Clean action paths from root

 * LocalSettings.php
 * .htaccess: Be sure to modify "/mediawiki/index.php" to where you have MediaWiki installed

Spam prevention
Using $wgActionPaths, especially for the edit action seems to reduce the number of spam bots attempting article edits. It is suspected that bots are programmed to look for action=edit to identify a MediaWiki installation and act appropriately. With this in mind, it would be beneficial to name your action prefix something non-apparent so bots can't find your site when they start looking for action/edit.