effective
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom French effectif, from Latin effectīvus (“productive; effective”), from efficiō (“I make; I bring about”).
Pronunciation
edit- (weak vowel distinction) IPA(key): /ɪˈfɛktɪv/
Audio (US): (file) - (weak vowel merger) IPA(key): /əˈfɛktɪv/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /əˈfektɪv/
- Homophone: affective (weak vowel merger)
- Rhymes: -ɛktɪv
Adjective
editeffective (comparative more effective, superlative most effective)
- Having the power to produce a required effect or effects.
- Synonym: efficacious
- The pill is an effective method of birth control.
- Producing a decided or decisive effect.
- The president delivered an effective speech!
- 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:
- Whosoever is an effective, real cause of doing his neighbour wrong, is criminal.
- Efficient, serviceable, or operative, available for useful work.
- Antonym: nominal
- How long does it take to make a bunch of civilians an effective military force?
- My effective income after taxes and child support is $500 a month.
- The effective radiated power is determined by multiplying the transmitter power output with the antenna gain.
- The effective voltage of an alternating current is 0.7 times its peak voltage.
- Actually in effect.
- effective immediately
- The curfew is effective at midnight.
- (geometry, of a cycle or divisor) Having no negative coefficients.
- (physics, for any effective theory) approximate; Not describing the fundamental dynamic changes in some system as they happen.
Usage notes
editWebster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary from 1913 lists efficient and effective as synonyms, but all major dictionaries now show that these words now only have different meanings in careful use. Use of both for the other meaning is however widespread enough that Longman's Exam Dictionary, for example, finds it necessary to proscribe the use of one for the other with several examples at each entry and provides the following summary:
- efficient = working quickly and without waste
- effective = having the desired effect
Derived terms
edit- bioeffective
- brake mean effective pressure
- coeffective
- cost-effective
- effectivate
- effective accelerationism
- effective accelerationist
- effective altruism
- effective altruist
- effective compression
- effective dose
- effective energy
- effectively
- effectiveness
- effective nuclear charge
- effective radiated power
- effective stack size
- effectivization
- effectivize
- Effie
- equieffective
- geoeffective
- ineffective
- isoeffective
- noneffective
- subeffective
- supereffective
- undereffective
- uneffective
Related terms
editTranslations
edithaving the power to produce a required effect or effects
|
producing a decided or decisive effect
|
efficient, serviceable, or operative
|
actually in effect
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Noun
editeffective (plural effectives)
- (military) a soldier fit for duty
- 1876, Dabney Herndon Maury, Southern Historical Society Papers: Volume 2, Number 4, Recollections of the Elkhorn Campaign:
- The Army of the West reached Corinth sometime after the battle of Shiloh. We were 15,000 effectives, and brought Beauregard's effective force up to 45,000 men.
French
editPronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /e.fɛk.tiv/
Audio: (file) - Homophone: effectives
Adjective
editeffective
Latin
editAdjective
editeffectīve
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰeh₁-
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English terms with homophones
- Rhymes:English/ɛktɪv
- Rhymes:English/ɛktɪv/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with collocations
- en:Geometry
- en:Physics
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Military
- French 3-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French terms with homophones
- French non-lemma forms
- French adjective forms
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin adjective forms