Word.ws English Dictionary

efficient

UK/ɪˈfɪʃənt//ɪˈfɪʃənt/

efficient adjective: making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy.

Adjective

efficient (comparative more efficient, superlative most 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.
    • Our cleaners are almost too efficient: they throw away anything left out on a desk.
    Synonyms:
    lean, businesslike
  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.
  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 sustained
    • It was well said of Plotinus, that the stars were significant, but not 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)
  4. (proscribed, old use) 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!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...
    • The Efficient Cause is that from which emanates the force that produces the Effect1856, William Dexter Wilson, An Elementary Treatise on Logic

Noun

efficient (plural efficients)

  1. (obsolete) A cause; something that causes an effect.
    • Some are without efficient, as God; others without matter, as Angels […].1643, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, I.14
    • 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.a. 1758, Jonathan Edwards, Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity

efficient meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

efficient in Hindi

efficient, productive
कार्यकुशल kāryakuśal

efficient in Tamil

செயல்திறன் மிக்க, ஆற்றல் மிக்க, திறன்மிகு, ஆற்றலான, திறமையான, தகைத்திறமான

efficient in Marathi

कार्यक्षम

efficient in Urdu

فعالی, مستعد
More languagesFewer languages
efficient in Bengali
দক্ষ, কার্যকর, ক্রিয়াশীল, ফলপ্রদ
efficient in Malayalam
ദക്ഷത, കാര്യക്ഷമത
efficient in Kannada
ದಕ್ಷ, ಸಮರ್ಥ, ಬೇಕಾದ ಫಲಿತಾಂಶವನ್ನು ತರುವ, ಅಳವುಳ್ಳ
efficient in Gujarati
કાર્યક્ષમ
efficient in Sanskrit
साधन sādhana
efficient in Assamese
পাকৈত pakoit
efficient in Nepali
कुशलतापूर्ण
efficient in Tagalog
episyente
efficient in Arabic
فَعَّال faʕʕāl
efficient in Malay
cekap, efisien

Examples of efficient in a sentence

  • We need to map out the user journey and make it more efficient.
  • Plato made the causes of things to be matter, ideas, and an efficient architect.
  • An efficient rifle or shotgun can harvest a deer for venison.

All 40 example sentences with efficient

Synonyms of efficient

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of efficient

Forms of efficient

Adjective
comparativemore efficient
superlativemost efficient
Noun
pluralefficients

Origin of efficient

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.

Words formed from efficient

Phrases with efficient

Words that rhyme with efficient

40 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about efficient

What does efficient mean?
Efficient means making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy.
What is efficient in Hindi?
Efficient in Hindi is कार्यकुशल (kāryakuśal). See Efficient meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is efficient?
Efficient can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce efficient?
Efficient is pronounced /ɪˈfɪʃənt/ (UK).

Words near efficient in the dictionary

  1. efficiency
  2. efficiency apartment
  3. efficiency apartments
  4. efficiency engineer
  5. efficiency engineers
  6. efficient
  7. efficient cause
  8. efficient causes
  9. efficient frontier
  10. efficient market hypothesis
  11. efficiently

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: efficient (page history and authors); कार्यकुशल (Hindi) (page history and authors); efficient (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); efficient (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); efficient (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); efficient (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); efficient (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); efficient (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); efficient (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); পাকৈত (Assamese) (page history and authors); efficient (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “efficient.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/efficient. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.