different between effective vs learned

English

Etymology

From French effectif, from Latin effect?vus (“productive; effective”), from effici? (“I make; I bring about”).

Pronunciation

• (weak vowel distinction) IPA^(key): /??f?kt?v/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /??f?kt?v/
• Rhymes: -?kt?v

Adjective

effective (comparative more effective, superlative most effective)

1. Having the power to produce a required effect or effects.

   Synonym: efficacious

2. Producing a decided or decisive effect.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

     Whosoever is an effective, real cause of doing his neighbour wrong, is criminal.

3. Efficient, serviceable, or operative, available for useful work.

4. Actually in effect.

5. (geometry, of a cycle or divisor) Having no negative coefficients.
6. (physics, for any effective theory) approximate; Not describing the fundamental dynamic changes in some system as they happen.

Usage notes

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary from 1913 still lists efficient and effective as synonyms, but all major dictionaries now show that these words now only have different meanings in careful use. Use of both for the other meaning is however widespread enough that Longman's Exam Dictionary, for example, finds it necessary to proscribe the use of one for the other with several examples at each entry and provides the following summary:

• efficient = working quickly and without waste
• effective = having the desired effect

Related terms

Translations

Noun

effective (plural effectives)

1. (military) a soldier fit for duty
   • 1876, Dabney Herndon Maury, Southern Historical Society Papers: Volume 2, Number 4, Recollections of the Elkhorn Campaign:

     The Army of the West reached Corinth sometime after the battle of Shiloh. We were 15,000 effectives, and brought Beauregard's effective force up to 45,000 men.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.f?k.tiv/
• Homophone: effectives

Adjective

effective

1. feminine singular of effectif

Latin

Adjective

effect?ve

1. vocative masculine singular of effect?vus

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English lerned, lernd, lernyd, equivalent to learn +? -ed, which replaced the earlier lered (“taught”), from Old English (?e)l?red, past participle of l?ran (“to teach”). Learn formerly had the meaning “to teach”, which is now found only in nonstandard speech, as well as its standard meaning of “to learn”.

Alternative forms

• learnèd, learnéd

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l??n?d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?l?n?d/

Adjective

learned (comparative more learned, superlative most learned)

1. Having much learning, knowledgeable, erudite; highly educated.

   Synonyms: brainy, erudite, knowledgeable, scholarly, educated; see also Thesaurus:learned

   Antonyms: ignorant, stupid, thick, uneducated

   • 1854, Charles Edward Pollock, Lake v. Plaxton, 156 Eng. Rep. 412 (Exch.) 414; 10 Ex. 199, 200 (Eng.)

     My learned Brother Cresswell directed the jury to make the calculation […]
2. (law, formal) A courteous description used in various ways to refer to lawyers or judges.
3. Scholarly, exhibiting scholarship.

Usage notes

• This adjectival sense of this word is sometimes spelled with a grave accent, learnèd. This is meant to indicate that the second ‘e’ is pronounced as /?/ or /?/, rather than being silent, as in the verb form. This usage is largely restricted to poetry and other works in which it is important that the adjective’s disyllabicity be made explicit.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old English leornian (“to acquire knowledge”)

Alternative forms

• learnt (UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand; alternative in Canada; rarely used in American English)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /l??nd/
• (US) enPR: lûrnd, IPA^(key): /l?nd/

Verb

learned

1. (Canada, US and dialectal English) simple past tense and past participle of learn

Adjective

learned (comparative more learned, superlative most learned)

1. Derived from experience; acquired by learning.

   Everyday behavior is an overlay of learned behavior over instinct.

Translations

References

Further reading

• learned in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• learned in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Darleen, Darlene, Leander, relaned