different between plausible vs effective

English

Etymology

From Latin plausibilis (“deserving applause, praiseworthy, acceptable, pleasing”), from the participle stem of plaudere (“to applaud”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pl??z.?.b?l/, /?pl??z.?.b?l/

Adjective

plausible (comparative more plausible, superlative most plausible)

1. Seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; conceivably true or likely

   • In short, the twin assumptions that syntactic rules are category-based, and that there are a highly restricted finite set of categories in any natural language (perhaps no more than a dozen major categories), together with the assumption that the child either knows (innately) or learns (by experience) that all rules are structure-dependent ( =category-based), provide a highly plausible model of language acquisition, in which languages become learnable in a relatively short, finite period of time (a few years).

2. Obtaining approbation; specifically pleasing; apparently right; specious.

   a plausible pretext; plausible manners; a plausible delusion

3. (obsolete) Worthy of being applauded; praiseworthy; commendable; ready.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bishop Hacket to this entry?)

   • 1955, Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky

     […] a coachman named Richard, who was described as a "sensible, well-behaved yellow boy, who is plausible and can read and write."

Derived terms

• plausible deniability
• plausibility
• plausibly

Translations

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin plausibilis.

Adjective

plausible (masculine and feminine plural plausibles)

1. plausible

Derived terms

• plausiblement

Further reading

• “plausible” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “plausible” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “plausible” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “plausible” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

From Latin plausibilis.

Pronunciation

Adjective

plausible (plural plausibles)

1. plausible

Further reading

• “plausible” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Adjective

plausible m or f (plural plausibles)

1. plausible

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin plausibilis.

Adjective

plausible (plural plausibles)

1. plausible

Further reading

• “plausible” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

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