efficient
//ɪˈfɪʃənt//
Forms
- Comparative
- more efficient
- Superlative
- most efficient
Definitions
1.Making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy.
- An efficient process would automate all the routine work.
- Our cleaners are almost too efficient: they throw away anything left out on a desk.
2.Expressing the proportion of consumed energy that was successfully used in a process; the ratio of useful output to total input.
- The motor is only 20% efficient at that temperature.
3.effective, efficacious
4.Causing effects, producing results; bringing into being; initiating change (rare except in philosophical and legal expression efficient cause = causative factor or agent).
- It was well said of Plotinus, that the stars were significant, but not efficient.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3124
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
1398, “making,” from Old French, from Latin efficientem, nominative efficiēns, participle of efficere (“work out, accomplish”) (see effect).
Meaning “productive, skilled” is from 1787.
Efficiency apartment is first recorded 1930, American English.