efficient
ef·fi·cient
adjective
1.
2.
able to accomplish a purpose; functioning effectively
- “people who will do nothing unless they get something out of it for themselves are often highly effective persons...” G.B.Shaw
- “effective personnel”
- “an efficient secretary”
- “the efficient cause of the revolution”
Origin
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.
Phrases
- efficient cause
- efficient frontier
- efficient market hypothesis
- energy efficient
- Kaldor-Hicks efficient
- kill two birds with one stone
- one fell swoop
Related words
Word family
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.