advantage
Americannoun
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advantages
plural
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any state, circumstance, opportunity, or means specially favorable to success, interest, or any desired end.
the advantage of a good education.
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benefit; gain; profit.
It will be to his advantage to learn Chinese before going to China.
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superiority or ascendancy (often followed by over orof ).
His height gave him an advantage over his opponent.
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a position of superiority (often followed by over orof ).
their advantage in experienced players.
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Tennis. the first point scored after deuce.
verb (used with object)
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advantages,
present (3rd person singular)
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advantaged,
past participle, past
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advantaging
present participle
idioms
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to advantage, to good effect; advantageously.
The paintings were arranged to advantage on one wall.
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have the advantage of, to be in a superior or advantageous position; possess an advantage over.
By virtue of independent wealth, he has the advantage of his opponents.
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take advantage of,
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to make use of for gain.
to take advantage of an opportunity.
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to impose upon, especially unfairly, as by exploiting a weakness.
to take advantage of someone.
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noun
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superior or more favourable position or power
he had an advantage over me because of his experience
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benefit or profit (esp in the phrase to one's advantage )
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tennis
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the point scored after deuce
-
the resulting state of the score
-
-
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to make good use of
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to impose upon the weakness, good nature, etc, of; abuse
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to seduce
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to good effect
he used his height to advantage at the game
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you know me but I do not know you
Usage
What are other ways to say advantage? An advantage is something that positions one well for accomplishing something. How is advantage different from benefit and profit? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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advantagesimple
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advantagessimple
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have advantagedperfect
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has advantagedperfect
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am advantagingprogressive
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are advantagingprogressive
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is advantagingprogressive
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have been advantagingperfect progressive
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has been advantagingperfect progressive
Past
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advantagedsimple
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had advantagedperfect
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was advantagingprogressive
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were advantagingprogressive
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had been advantagingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of advantage
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English ava(u)ntage, from Anglo-French, Old French avantage, equivalent to avant “before” + -age noun suffix; see origin at advance, -age
Explanation
An advantage is like a head start in a race; it's that thing that gives you a better chance. The noun advantage also refers to a reward or benefit of some action or event. Being sick with the flu had the advantage of kick-starting your diet because you didn't feel like eating much. If you leverage the benefits, you are taking advantage of the situation. If you go on a business trip to Hawaii, you could take advantage of the opportunity and spend an extra day or two on vacation.
Vocabulary lists containing advantage
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"Harrison Bergeron"
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"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling
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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.
See Examples For:
Until those approaches have been shown to work reliably, the ability to undo or adjust a treatment remains an important safety advantage of traditional medicine.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026
A moment’s hesitation gives away the four-on-three advantage created by the double-team.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026
The case will hear allegations made by Nebahat Isbilen, an elderly Turkish woman, who says her former adviser Selman Turk misled her and used her wealth to his own advantage.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
If they are active enough, he’ll enter and look to take advantage of price differences across venues.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
He always took advantage of the master’s divisive culture to be anything but a team player.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
Redick praised Grimes’ ability to keep advantages by driving decisively.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026
Marvell CEO Matt Murphy said that Lumentum’s laser technology and Marvell’s digital signal processors would together create advantages in the marketplace.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026
Hunting down the shadow fleet offers Ukraine a number of strategic advantages in its fight against the Russian invasion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026
"Now that picture might change, but as I can see it now in October 2026, that's where we are, there are more disadvantages than advantages."
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
Bigger European ships with sails had some advantages.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said current tests and assessments in schools "set many students up to fail, overwhelmingly those from less advantaged backgrounds".
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
“If that isn’t a signal to grow production in an advantaged area like the Permian Basin, then I don’t know what is,” said CEO Kaes Van’t Hof on Diamondback’s earnings call early Tuesday.
From Barron's ● May 5, 2026
Counterintuitively, Ross said, smaller independent grocers are actually advantaged in the short term, as smaller stores tend to play in more localized markets than their major chain competitors.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026
“Sun Belt states are experiencing markets with the most advantaged buyers, while markets in the Northeast and Midwest frequently remain advantaged toward sellers.”
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 12, 2026
I wanted students more aware of their differences from persons less advantaged.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
The administration wants to gain visibility into frontier capabilities without slowing American labs and advantaging China.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
“Past tech revolutions have tended to bypass older workers because they haven’t necessarily built those tech skills. But we’re finding that AI is advantaging those who have expertise.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2025
Further advantaging them might hamstring the promising open-source A.I. movement—a crucial area of competition—to the point of obsolescence.
From Slate ● Nov. 14, 2023
Smith agreed, pointing out laws advantaging employers at the expense of workers when it came to organizing into early forms of unions.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 14, 2019
Are you not the fools to be advantaging yourselves of comforts you might be sure no fairy left for Campbells in Dalness?
From John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn by Neil Munro
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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.
