expedient
Americanadjective
-
tending to promote some proposed or desired object; fit or suitable for the purpose; proper under the circumstances.
It is expedient that you go.
- Synonyms:
- profitable, advantageous, desirable, appropriate, advisable
- Antonyms:
- disadvantageous
-
conducive to advantage or interest, as opposed to right.
-
acting in accordance with expediency, or what is advantageous.
noun
-
a means to an end.
The ladder was a useful expedient for getting to the second floor.
-
a means devised or employed in an exigency; resource; shift.
Use any expedients you think necessary to get over the obstacles in your way.
- Synonyms:
- resort, contrivance, device
adjective
-
suitable to the circumstances; appropriate
-
inclined towards methods or means that are advantageous rather than fair or just
noun
Other Word Forms
- expediently adverb
- nonexpedient adjective
- nonexpediently adverb
- quasi-expedient adjective
- quasi-expediently adverb
- unexpedient adjective
- unexpediently adverb
Etymology
Origin of expedient
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin expedient- (stem of expediēns ), present participle of expedīre. See expedite, -ent
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.
One expedient way to get more done is, he suggests, to turn deliberate intentions into defaults: “Activities you once had to muster the motivation to do will, given enough repetition, become habits.”
This provided a “logical and most expedient opportunity” to get more info on what documents existed and pave the way for a consent search.
Much more expedient, and more favorable from an equity investors’ standpoint, is to continue to issue debt.
From Barron's
Council officers considered whether enforcement action should have been taken, but recommended "it would not be expedient for the council to take any formal enforcement action against the event organiser", calling the breach "minor".
From BBC
Stanton is a bit of an elitist; Anthony actually comes from a more reformist, anti-slavery tradition, but she still makes those expedient compromises, which I think costs the suffrage movement.
From Salon
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.
