different between effective vs working

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?w??k??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?w?k??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k??
• Hyphenation: work?ing

Etymology 1

From Middle English werking, werkynge, warkynge, worchinge, from Old English wyr?ung (“working, work”), verbal noun of wyr?an (“to work”), equivalent to work +? -ing. Cognate with Scots wirking, warking, Dutch werking, German Wirkung.

Noun

working (countable and uncountable, plural workings)

1. (usually in the plural) Operation; action.
2. Method of operation.
3. (arithmetic) The incidental or subsidiary calculations performed in solving an overall problem.

4. Fermentation.
5. (of bodies of water) Becoming full of a vegetable substance.
6. A place where work is carried on.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English workyng, wirkynge, worchinge, werchinge, workinde, wirkand, worchende, wurchende, from Old English wyr?ende, from Proto-Germanic *wurkijandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *wurkijan? (“to work”), equivalent to work +? -ing. Compare Scots wirkand, werkand, warkand (“working”), Dutch werkend (“working, acting”), German wirkend (“acting, working”).

Verb

working

1. present participle of work

Adjective

working (not comparable)

1. That is or are functioning.

2. That suffices but requires additional work.

3. In paid employment.

4. Of or relating to employment.

5. Enough to allow one to use something.

   a working knowledge of computers

6. Used in real life; practical.

Synonyms

• (functioning):: functioning; up (mainly used of computers):
• (that suffices but requires further work):: draft, provisional, temporary
• (in paid employment):: employed, in employment
• (of or relating to employment):: work
• (enough to allow one to use something):: basic

Antonyms

• (functioning):: broken, broken-down, down (mainly used of computers):

Derived terms

Hyponyms

• known-working

Translations

Related terms

• work

References

• working in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.