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
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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:
“In my view, those are the two leading contenders to get to commercial advantage first,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
But Centrus has an early-mover advantage: It is one of only two companies—alongside Urenco—that has an NRC license to produce low-enriched uranium and the only NRC-licensed entity for the highly enriched kind.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
Arsenal's stunning loss on the south coast opened the door for City and they took full advantage.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
This process, known as upconversion, gives the nanoparticles an important advantage.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
Taking advantage of this, Penkovsky sneaked in a tiny Minox camera, a favorite device of fictional spies.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
With a vibrant social scene and plenty of recreation, it provides a realistic baseline for comparing the financial advantages of living and working abroad.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
China offers competitive advantages in drug development: Its trial sites recruit patients faster, helped by a unified state health system, high patient density near major hospitals and digital recruitment tools, experts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
If objectivity is the initiative, then both viewpoints must have their advantages and follies fully rendered.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
Children raised in two-parent families in which one parent is employed full time already have a host of advantages, while children raised in low-income single-parent households are more likely to face significant challenges.
From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2026
Only the further evidence that I’ll now present can help us answer two more questions: What advantages enabled the Bantu to displace the Pygmies and Khoisan?
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Several contributors felt parents were largely responsible for finding information themselves, with one DfE study, external showing requests to defer school entry were more common among families from more advantaged backgrounds.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 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
“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
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
It is self-love: worshipping thyself, comforting thyself, advantaging thyself, and regarding all others as either toys or slaves for that great idol, thyself.
From In Convent Walls The Story of the Despensers by M. (Madelaine) Irwin
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.
