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.

2025年8月28日 · 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 …

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

There are 17 meanings listed in OED's entry for the word effective, five of which are labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.