Effective typically describes things—such as policies, treatments, arguments, and techniques—that do what they are intended to do. People can also be described as effective …

EFFECTIVE definition: 1. successful or achieving the results that you want: 2. (used about a treatment or drug) working…. Learn more.

The adjective effective describes things that are adequate to accomplish a purpose, or that produce the intended or expected result. But effective isn’t quite the same as effectual, …

Definition of effective adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

Effective means having a particular role or result in practice, though not officially or in theory. They have had effective control of the area since the security forces left. The restructuring resulted …

Effective and efficient are often confused, but they have slightly different meanings. If you are effective, you do a job properly; if you are efficient, you do it quickly and easily.

Effective, effectual, efficacious, efficient refer to that which is able to produce a (desired) effect. Effective is applied to that which has the power to, or which actually does, produce an effect: …

Find 855 different ways to say EFFECTIVE, along with antonyms, related words, and example sentences at Thesaurus.com.

Aug 28, 2025 · Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary from 1913 lists efficient and effective as synonyms, but all major dictionaries now show that these words now only have different …

The adjective effective has many shades of meaning, but you'll usually see it describing something that's able to produce a desired goal. Effective traces back to the Latin word …