advantage
Americannoun
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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)
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
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the resulting state of the score
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-
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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
Academic Vocabulary Toolkit 1, Words 1-10
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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:
He said that in coming years, groups might take advantage of AI to formulate much larger attacks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Scientists have known about that advantage for years, but the biological reason behind it has remained unclear.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 24, 2026
She said the trace of Ligandrol would have provided her with no performance advantage.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
For Ferguson, the big advantage of CCAs is to "achieve missions that would be too high risk with normal human life at the stake".
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
In this way every musher could keep the advantage he or she had earned.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
Grim though it sounds, grief can bring electoral advantages.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
Researchers suggest that such exposure could offer nutritional advantages or other benefits, including possible immune regulation.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
“The accelerated growth we delivered this quarter shows our structural advantages to lead the next era of connectivity,” CEO John Stankey said in a release.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
One of the key advantages of a solar-powered car for providing healthcare in somewhere like Kenya is its adaptability, said Maurits from the Amref NGO.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
There were advantages, he could see, to being made of wood.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
"The size of the gap between the educational outcomes of children from more and less advantaged backgrounds is a scourge on our society," Julie McCulloch, chief executive of the EPI said.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Canada is geographically advantaged to sell to Asia.
From Barron's ● Mar. 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
The Spring, Texas, company said its advantaged assets are central to its new guidance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 9, 2025
We lived well, our days were mostly sunny, and I know that my parents were stoically undeceived by the objectively equivocal, contingent nature of the advantaged life they gave me and my siblings.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
“We urgently need a smart export-control strategy that applies robust export controls to deny our adversaries access to advanced technology, while advantaging U.S. companies,” McGuire wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 13, 2026
The administration wants to gain visibility into frontier capabilities without slowing American labs and advantaging China.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
“Increased emphasis on these elements, we found, has the effect of advantaging the advantaged.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2024
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
But, surprisingly enough, she proved of two minds about advantaging herself of the opportunity.
From Nobody by Jacobs, W. L.
Definitions 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.
