proficient
UK/pɹəˈfɪʃ.ənt//pɹoʊˈfɪʃ.ənt/
proficient adjective: good at something; skilled; fluent; practiced, especially in relation to a task or skill.
Adjective
proficient (comparative more proficient, superlative most proficient)
- Good at something; skilled; fluent; practiced, especially in relation to a task or skill.
- He was a proficient writer with an interest in human nature.
- By constant playing and experimenting with these he learned to tie rude knots, and make sliding nooses; and with these he and the younger apes amused themselves. What Tarzan did they tried to do also, but he alone originated and became proficient.1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 5, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert]...
Noun
proficient (plural proficients)
- An expert.
- The colonel now addressed me, […] adding, "I hope we shall send you to your regiment up the country quite a proficient, and calculated to reflect credit on your instructors in the Zubberdust Bullumteers."1880, Francis John Bellew, Memoirs of a Griffin; Or, A Cadet's First Year in India, page 202
- Why not subpoena as well the clerical proficients?1924, Herman Melville, chapter 10, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.
- Synonyms:
- expert
proficient meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
proficient in Hindi
- skilled
- प्रवीण pravīṇ
- expert
- प्रवीण pravīṇ, पारंगत pāraṅgat
proficient in Tamil
- திறமையான, ஆற்றல்
proficient in Marathi
- निपुण
proficient in Urdu
- فاضل, حاذق, کامل, لائق, ماہر, قابل
More languagesFewer languages
- proficient in Bengali
- দক্ষ, পারদর্শী
- proficient in Malayalam
- നിപുണൻ nipuṇaṉ
- proficient in Kannada
- ಪ್ರವೀಣನಾದ, ಸಮರ್ಥನಾದ, ದಕ್ಷನಾದ, ನುರಿತ
- proficient in Punjabi
- ਨਿਪੁੰਨ
- proficient in Odia
- ଯୋଗ୍ୟ jogya
- proficient in Nepali
- निपुण
- proficient in Tagalog
- dalubhasa
- proficient in Indonesian
- mahir
Examples of proficient in a sentence
- The Winter Hill Gang was quite proficient at murdering rival mobsters in order to take over their rackets.
- Plenty of people begin the training, but few stick it out for the year or two necessary to become proficient.
- To capitalize on the opportunities related to dynamicism, advertisers and agencies will need to become more proficient in data-driven marketing applications.
Synonyms of proficient
Forms of proficient
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more proficient |
| superlative | most proficient |
| Noun | |
| plural | proficients |
Origin of proficient
From Latin proficiens, present participle of proficere (“to go forward, advance, make progress, succeed, be profitable or useful”), from pro (“forth, forward”) + facere (“to make, do”); see fact.
Words formed from proficient
Words that rhyme with proficient
- efficient
- sufficient
- coefficient
- deficient
- hyperdeficient
- inefficient
- insufficient
- omniscient
- perficient
- self-sufficient
- allicient
- beneficient
40 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- bideficient
- biodeficient
- calorifacient
- calorificient
- cogniscient
- cost-efficient
- ecoefficient
- eigencoefficient
- equiefficient
- haplodeficient
- haploinsufficient
- haploproficient
- haplosufficient
- hyperefficient
- immunodeficient
- immunoinsufficient
- immunosufficient
- indeficient
- lymphosufficient
- maleficient
- multideficient
- multiscient
- nondeficient
- nonefficient
- nonomniscient
- nonproficient
- nonsufficient
- objicient
- Pareto-efficient
- phosphodeficient
- piezocoefficient
- projicient
- pseudodeficient
- subefficient
- superefficient
- superproficient
- ultraefficient
- undeficient
- unproficient
- unsufficient
Questions about proficient
- What does proficient mean?
- Proficient means good at something; skilled; fluent; practiced, especially in relation to a task or skill.
- What is proficient in Hindi?
- Proficient in Hindi is प्रवीण (pravīṇ), पारंगत (pāraṅgat). See Proficient meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is proficient?
- Proficient can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce proficient?
- Proficient is pronounced /pɹəˈfɪʃ.ənt/ (UK).
Words near proficient in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: proficient (page history and authors); proficient (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); proficient (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); proficient (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); proficient (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); proficient (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); proficient (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଯୋଗ୍ୟ (Odia) (page history and authors); proficient (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-proficient.ogg.
Cite this entry: “proficient.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/proficient. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.