- effective
- effective, effectual, efficient, efficacious all mean producing or capable of producing a result or results, but they are not freely interchangeable in idiomatic use.Effective emphasizes the actual production of an effect or the power to produce a given effect{
effective thinking
}{an effective speaker
}{an effective rebuke
}{the law becomes effective on the 1st of next month
}{research chemists . . . are actively investigating to learn why particular materials are effective and to make them more so— Morrison
}{persons who will do nothing unless they get something out of it for themselves are often highly effective persons of action— Shaw
}Effectual suggests the accomplishment of a desired result or the fulfillment of a purpose or intention, so that the term frequently becomes synonymous with decisive or final and looks backward after the event{an effectual measure
}{an effectual refutation
}{his recommendation was effectual, and I was . . . chosen— Gibbon
}{an appeal to the emotions is little likely to be effectual before lunch— Maugham
}Efficient may apply to what is actively operative and producing a result and then comes close to operant in meaning{it should be obvious that it is the conditions producing the end effects which must be regarded as the efficient causes of them— Ashley Montagu
}More often it suggests an acting or a capacity or potential for action or use in such a manner as to minimize the loss or waste of energy in effecting, producing, or functioning{an effi-cient apparatus
}{a setup designed for the efficient production of small parts
}{a strong tendency to break up cumbersome estates into small, efficient farms— Nevins & Commager
}As used of human beings with this denotation efficient suggests the exercise of such qualities as skill, pains, and vigilance and often becomes synonymous with capable and competent{an efficient housewife takes care of her equipment
}{because pasturage is the best and cheapest feed for dairy cows, the efficient dairyman takes the best possible care of his pastures— R. E. Hodgson & W. J. Sweetman
}{a small seedy village grocer is more efficient for the limited task he must perform than a supermarket— Wiles
}Efficacious implies the possession of the quality or virtue that gives a thing the potency or power that makes it effective{quinine is efficacious in cases of malaria
}{good wishes being so cheap, though possibly not very efficacious— Hawthorne
}{certain formulae of blessing especially efficacious against devils— Wylie
}Analogous words: forceful, forcible, potent, *powerful: producing or productive, bearing, turning out (see corresponding verbs at BEAR): telling, cogent, convincing, compelling (see VALID): operative, *active, dynamicAntonyms: ineffective: futile
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
