efficiency
Americannoun
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efficiencies
plural
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the state or quality of being efficient, or able to accomplish something with the least waste of time and effort; competency in performance.
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accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort.
The assembly line increased industry's efficiency.
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the ratio of the work done or energy developed by a machine, engine, etc., to the energy supplied to it, usually expressed as a percentage.
noun
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the quality or state of being efficient; competence; effectiveness
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the ratio of the useful work done by a machine, engine, device, etc, to the energy supplied to it, often expressed as a percentage See also thermal efficiency
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The ratio of the energy delivered (or work done) by a machine to the energy needed (or work required) in operating the machine. The efficiency of any machine is always less than one due to forces such as friction that use up energy unproductively.
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See also mechanical advantage
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The ratio of the effective or useful output to the total input in any system.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of efficiency
First recorded in 1585–95; from Latin efficientia, from efficient- (stem of efficiēns efficient ) + -ia -y 3
Explanation
Efficiency is avoiding a waste of time, effort, or resources. Many people have begun to use compact fluorescent light bulbs because of their greater energy efficiency. Nowadays, efficiency often refers to energy efficiency, the effort to get more energy from existing resources: making cars that can go farther with less fuel, or appliances that do the same work with less electricity. But this noun isn't restricted to an environmental context. Efficiency can also simply be a measurement of what goes into a thing versus what comes out of it. A process with high efficiency requires only a little work to produce big results.
Vocabulary lists containing efficiency
Word Generation Science - Energy
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"The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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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:
“Selling a relatively mature asset into a strong commodity price environment improves our go-forward capital efficiency and allows us to accelerate share buybacks, strengthen our balance sheet and increase long-term value for shareholders,” Gaspar said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Factory efficiency, pricing and vehicle mix, meaning the balance between cheaper and more expensive models, determine how much profit each sale brings in.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
Some of it is efficiency; DoorDashing instead of going to a restaurant where you run into each other.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Royal Mail said the workforce reduction, designed to improve efficiency, would be achieved through voluntary redundancies and people choosing to leave the company.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
He washed the tables and the bar, moving with a patient efficiency.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Sonic’s focus in the U.K. is shifting to organic growth and efficiencies, Jefferies says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
There have been mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, overlaps, layoffs, and quote-unquote efficiencies all along the way.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2026
While the official line in the current climate is that efficiencies have to be made, unions describe the move more like cuts.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
The technique produced DNA assembly efficiencies two to five times higher than those achieved with conventional restriction enzyme methods.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
Having absorbed Lawrence’s confidence that further efficiencies eventually would be achieved, Groves reduced the specification for Y-12 to five hundred tanks, or five racetracks.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
