expedient
/ɪkˈspiːdi.ənt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.83 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Affording short-term benefit, often at the expense of the long-term.
adj
noun
A method or means for achieving a particular result, especially when direct or efficient; a resource.
Example Sentences
- "Most people, faced with a decision, will choose the most expedient option."
- "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter willnot come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you."
- "Nothing but the right can ever be the expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a greater good to a less."
- "[T]he judges were unanimously of opinion that [...] by the common law of England, no man, not authorised by the crown, had a right to publish political news. While the Whig party was still formidable, the government thought it expedient occasionally to connive at the violation of this rule."
- "That's because the debate pits textbook economics — which argues that bailouts beget bad behavior begets more bailouts — against practical politics. And politics, or the taking of expedient steps to keep people happy, will almost always win."
- "Government has slowly but positively moved from an active course of following plans and policies to the easier and more expedient course of the counterpuncher."
Etymology
From Middle English expedient, from Old French expedient, from Latin expediens (stem expedient-), present participle of expedire (“to bring forward, to dispatch, to expedite; impers. to be profitable, serviceable, advantageous, expedient”), from ex (“out”) + pēs (“foot, hoof”).