efficient
1398, “making,” from Old French -, from Latin efficientem, nominative efficiēns, participle of efficere (see effect). Pronunciation Adjective
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1398, “making,” from Old French -, from Latin efficientem, nominative efficiēns, participle of efficere (see effect). Pronunciation Adjective
efficient
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Ownership, maintenance, or use of the automobile need not be the direct and efficient cause of the injury sustained
- (proscribed, old use) effective
- 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer:
- Ye wake no more to anguish;‥ ye have borne
The Chosen, the Destroyer!‥ soon his hand
Shall strike the efficient blow;
Soon shaking off your penal forms, shall ye,
With songs of joy, amid the Eden groves,
Hymn the Deliverer’s praise!
- Ye wake no more to anguish;‥ ye have borne
- The efficient cause is the working cause.
- 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer:
- French: efficace
- German: effizient
- Italian: efficiente
- Portuguese: eficiente
- Russian: эффекти́вный
- Spanish: eficiente, eficaz
efficient (plural efficients)
- (obsolete) a cause; something that causes an effect
- 1643, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, I.14:
- Some are without efficient, as God; others without matter, as Angels […].
- This implies, that something happens without a cause. If it should be said, that motive in this case is not the efficient of the action or doing — this is granted; but at the same time, for reasons already given, it is denied, that the man himself is the efficient cause of it.
- 1643, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, I.14:
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