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:
The kitchen and dining areas also take advantage of the property’s elevated position, offering views of the water.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026
Basing that data collection effort in the Middle East is an advantage because the region has a large blue-collar labor force that can be observed and recorded for AI and robotics training, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
At a time when studios are in a fierce competition for consumers’ attention, Disney is trying to lean into its biggest advantage — its massive and unique fan base.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
By developing new ways to take advantage of the sea's abundance, these communities may have supported further population growth.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026
Just as I finished my blubbering, I spotted Samir taking advantage of the distraction to switch the drinks in front of him and the ablutionist.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
“The biggest advantages for drones come in wet fields, rough terrain, irregularly shaped fields and situations where timely product applications are critical,” says Bernt Nelson of the AFBF.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
Kay, who has DJ'd across the country and produced music over the past 30 years, said there were advantages to being on the decks during the day.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026
One of the most important advantages of the new microscope is its ability to reveal cellular activity without relying on fluorescent markers.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
According to Meta’s benchmark data, the flagship Muse Wonder Full beats out top OpenAI and Anthropic models on memory retention, financial analysis and long-horizon coding tasks — though rival models maintain advantages in other areas.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026
This is the reason for string theory, which was created in the 1970s when physicists began to see the advantages of treating every particle as a vibrating string rather than as a dot.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
“This suggests a new phenomenon, with the biggest factor in the overall drop in scores being advantaged students who are performing below what one would expect given their background,” said Schleicher.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
"The market environment was clearly supportive. But market conditions alone do not explain results," said the company, which also touted "reliable operations, optimization in advantaged assets and high-value products across our businesses."
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 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
Three powers advantaging a Chieftain most Are Peace and Justice and an Armed Host.
From A Celtic Psaltery by Alfred Perceval Graves
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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.
