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efficient

adj
/ɪˈfɪʃənt/UK/ɪˈfɪʃənt/CA/ᵻˈfiʃɪəɳʈ/

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.

  1. derived from efficientem

Definitions

  1. Making good, thorough, or careful use of resources

    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

    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. Causing effects, producing results

    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 sustained
    • It was well said of Plotinus, that the stars were significant, but not efficient.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. effective, efficacious

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

    2. A cause

      A cause; something that causes an effect.

      • Some are without efficient, as God; others without matter, as Angels […].

The neighborhood

Derived

cost-efficient, ecoefficient, efficient cause, efficient frontier, efficiently, efficient market hypothesis, efficientness, energy-efficient, energy efficient, equiefficient, hyperefficient, Kaldor-Hicks efficient, nonefficient, subefficient, superefficient, tax-efficient, ultraefficient

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at efficient. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01efficient02input03advice04intelligence05meanings06meaning07connected08organized

A definitional loop anchored at efficient. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at efficient

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA