Etymology

1398, “making,” from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#EFFICIENT, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#EFFICIENT 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. ^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪˈfɪʃənt/Category:English 3-syllable words#EFFICIENTCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#EFFICIENT
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, /əˈfɪʃənt/Category:English 3-syllable words#EFFICIENTCategory:English 3-syllable words#EFFICIENTCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#EFFICIENT

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#EFFICIENT
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ᵻˈfiʃɪəɳʈ/Category:English 3-syllable words#EFFICIENTCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#EFFICIENT
• Rhymes: -ɪʃəntCategory:Rhymes:English/ɪʃənt#EFFICIENTCategory:Rhymes:English/ɪʃənt/3 syllables#EFFICIENT

Adjective

efficient (comparative more efficient, superlative most efficient)Category:English lemmas#EFFICIENTCategory:English adjectives#EFFICIENTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#EFFICIENTCategory:Pages with entries#EFFICIENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#EFFICIENT

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.Category:English terms with usage examples#EFFICIENT

   Our cleaners are almost too efficient: they throw away anything left out on a desk.Category:English terms with usage examples#EFFICIENT

   • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

     An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic […] real kidneys […] . But they are nothing like as efficient, and can cause bleeding, clotting and infection—not to mention inconvenience for patients, who typically need to be hooked up to one three times a week for hours at a time.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EFFICIENT

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.Category:English terms with usage examples#EFFICIENT

3. Causing effects, producing results; bringing into being; initiating change (rare except in philosophical and legal expression efficient cause = causative factor or agent).

   Ownership, maintenance, or use of the automobile need not be the direct and efficient cause of the injury sustainedCategory:English terms with usage examples#EFFICIENT

   • 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):

     It was well said of Plotinus, that the stars were significant, but not efficient.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EFFICIENT

4. (proscribedCategory:English proscribed terms#EFFICIENT, old use) effective, efficacious
   • 1801, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC:

     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!

     Category:English terms with quotations#EFFICIENT

   • 1856, William Dexter Wilson, An Elementary Treatise on Logic:

     The Efficient Cause is that from which emanates the force that produces the Effect

     Category:English terms with quotations#EFFICIENT

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Noun

efficient (plural efficients)Category:English lemmas#EFFICIENTCategory:English nouns#EFFICIENTCategory:English countable nouns#EFFICIENTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#EFFICIENTCategory:Pages with entries#EFFICIENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#EFFICIENT

1. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#EFFICIENT) 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 […].

     Category:English terms with quotations#EFFICIENT

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   • a. 1758, Jonathan Edwards, Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EFFICIENT

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References

Etymology

From LatinCategory:Danish terms derived from Latin#EFFICIENT efficientia.

Adjective

efficient (plural and definite singular attributive efficiente)Category:Danish lemmas#EFFICIENTCategory:Danish adjectives#EFFICIENTCategory:Danish terms spelled with C#EFFICIENTCategory:Danish entries with incorrect language header#EFFICIENTCategory:Pages with entries#EFFICIENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#EFFICIENT

1. efficient, effective (with regards to economics)

Further reading

• “efficient” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology

Borrowed from LatinCategory:French terms borrowed from Latin#EFFICIENTCategory:French terms derived from Latin#EFFICIENT efficientem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.fi.sjɑ̃/Category:French 3-syllable words#EFFICIENTCategory:French terms with IPA pronunciation#EFFICIENT

• Audio:

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#EFFICIENT
• Homophone: efficientsCategory:French terms with homophones#EFFICIENT

Adjective

efficient (feminine efficiente, masculine plural efficients, feminine plural efficientes)Category:French lemmas#EFFICIENTCategory:French adjectives#EFFICIENTCategory:French entries with incorrect language header#EFFICIENTCategory:Pages with entries#EFFICIENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#EFFICIENT

1. efficient
2. effective

Further reading

• “efficient”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɛfˈfɪ.ki.ɛnt]Category:Latin 4-syllable words#EFFICIENTCategory:Latin terms with IPA pronunciation#EFFICIENT
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [efˈfiː.t͡ʃi.ent]Category:Latin 4-syllable words#EFFICIENTCategory:Latin terms with IPA pronunciation#EFFICIENT

Verb

efficientCategory:Latin non-lemma forms#EFFICIENTCategory:Latin verb forms#EFFICIENTCategory:Latin entries with incorrect language header#EFFICIENTCategory:Pages with entries#EFFICIENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#EFFICIENT

1. third-person plural future active indicative of efficiō