proficient
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of proficient
First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin prōficient-, stem of prōficiēns, present participle of prōficere “to advance, make progress,” equivalent to prō- pro- 1 + -ficere, combining form of facere “to make, do”; cf. do, efficient
Explanation
When someone has become good at something, they are proficient. After all those hours playing video games, you must be very proficient at them. Proficient comes from the Latin for making progress, so if someone is proficient, they have made so much progress that they've become good at something. Use proficient to talk about improvement through practice instead of natural ability; even a person with no inherent skill at language can become proficient in Latin. If you're proficient at tennis, you're good, but it doesn't imply the kind of mastery for which the expert is used.
Vocabulary lists containing proficient
Grade 9, List 1
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students, List 4
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ACT Vocabulary List
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“There’s a lot of lying and I’m just not that proficient of a liar,” Childs said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
They can be technically proficient, maybe even a little funny, but there is always an underlying cadence of the uncanny valley that I still doubt Suno v6 pro et al. or whatever has totally overcome.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
Compared with 2023, when AI was still nascent, there’s been an overall drop from 51.7% to 50.3% of New York City students scoring proficient in reading and writing, with eighth-graders seeing the steepest decline.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Often a parent hears a child speaking English with friends or siblings and assumes the child is already proficient and has exited the program, Villarreal said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
The censorship delayed the delivery of mail because warders, some of whom were not proficient in English, might take as long as a month to censor a letter.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
