Definition of EFFICIENT

efficient

Plural: efficients

Adjective

  • being effective without wasting time or effort or expense
    • "an efficient production manager"
    • "efficient engines save gas"

Adjective Satellite

  • able to accomplish a purpose; functioning effectively; -G.B.Shaw
    • "an efficient secretary"
    • "the efficient cause of the revolution"

Adj

  • Making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy.
  • Expressing the proportion of consumed energy that was successfully used in a process; the ratio of useful output to total input.
  • Causing effects, producing results; bringing into being; initiating change (rare except in philosophical and legal expression efficient cause = causative factor or agent).
  • effective, efficacious

Noun

  • A cause; something that causes an effect.

Examples

  • An efficient process would automate all the routine work.
  • Our cleaners are almost too efficient: they throw away anything left out on a desk.
  • Ownership, maintenance, or use of the automobile need not be the direct and efficient cause of the injury sustained
  • The motor is only 20% efficient at that temperature.

Origin / 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.

Scrabble Score: 17

efficient: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
efficient: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
efficient: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 19

efficient: valid Words With Friends Word