different between ready vs effective

English

Etymology

From Middle English redy, redi, rædi?, iredi, ?er?di, alteration ( +? -y) of earlier ir?d, irede, ?er?d (“ready, prepared”), from Old English r?de, ?er?de (also ?er?de) ("prepared, prompt, ready, ready for riding (horse), mounted (on a horse), skilled, simple, easy"), from Proto-Germanic *garaidijaz, *raidijaz, from base *raidaz (“ready”), from Proto-Indo-European *r?yd?-, *r?y- (“to count, put in order, arrange, make comfortable”) and also probably conflated with Proto-Indo-European *reyd?- (“to ride”) in the sense of "set to ride, able or fit to go, ready". Cognate with Scots readie, reddy (“ready, prepared”), West Frisian ree (“ready”), Dutch gereed (“ready”), German bereit (“ready”), Danish rede (“ready”), Swedish redo (“ready, fit, prepared”), Norwegian reiug (“ready, prepared”), Icelandic greiður (“easy, light”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (garaiþs, “arranged, ordered”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?'di, IPA^(key): /???.di/

• Homophone: reddy

  Rhymes: -?di

• Hyphenation: read?y

Adjective

ready (comparative readier, superlative readiest)

1. Prepared for immediate action or use.
   • 1711, Jonathan Swift, journal to Stella

     she was told dinner was ready

2. Inclined; apt to happen.
3. Liable at any moment.
4. Not slow or hesitating; quick in action or perception of any kind.

   Synonyms: dexterous, prompt, easy, expert
5. Offering itself at once; at hand; opportune; convenient.
   • 1700, John Dryden, Theodore and Honoria

     A sapling pine he wrenched from out the ground, / The readiest weapon that his fury found.

Synonyms

• good to go

Antonyms

• unready

Translations

Verb

ready (third-person singular simple present readies, present participle readying, simple past and past participle readied)

1. (transitive) To prepare; to make ready for action.

Synonyms

• yark

Hypernyms

Derived terms

• foreready
• readily
• readiness
• ready-made
• ready-mixed
• ready-to-wear

Related terms

Translations

Noun

ready (countable and uncountable, plural readies)

1. (slang) ready money; cash
   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull

     Lord Strut was not flush in ready, either to go to law, or to clear old debts.

   • 2008, Agnes Owens, The Group

     […] he was generous when he had the cash. Many a time he kept me going in drink through the week when I was stuck for the ready […]

Translations

Related terms

• already

Anagrams

• Yarde, dayer, deary, deray, rayed, yeard

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