different between reliable vs expedient

English

Etymology

From Scottish raliabill, itself from to rely + -able

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?-l???-b?l, IPA^(key): /???la??b?l/
• Rhymes: -a??b?l

Adjective

reliable (comparative more reliable, superlative most reliable)

1. Suitable or fit to be relied on; worthy of dependence, reliance or trust; dependable, trustworthy
   • 1855, Andrews Norton, Internal Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels

     a reliable witness to the truth of the miracles

   • February 18, 1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Report on Mr. Pitt's Speech in Parliament of February 17, 1800, on the Continuance of the War with France (published in The Morning Post)

     the best means, and the most reliable pledge, of a higher object

   • According to General Livingston's humorous account, his own village of Elizabethtown was not much more reliable, being peopled in those agitated times by unknown, unrecommended strangers, guilty-looking Tories, and very knavish Whigs.

2. (signal processing, of a communication protocol) Such that either a sent packet will reach its destination, even if it requires retransmission, or the sender will be told that it didn't

Synonyms

• secure
• dependable
• trustworthy
• trusty

Antonyms

• unreliable

Derived terms

• reliableness
• reliably
• semireliable

Related terms

• reliability
• reliance
• rely

Translations

See also

• Reliability on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Noun

reliable (plural reliables)

1. Something or someone reliable or dependable

   the old reliables

Translations

Anagrams

• Abrielle, Bellaire, lieberal

English

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”) + p?s (“foot, hoof”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?spi?di.?nt/

Adjective

expedient (comparative more expedient, superlative most expedient)

1. Suitable to effect some desired end or the purpose intended.
   • a. 1863, Richard Whately, Thoughts and Apophthegms

     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.

2. Affording short-term benefit, often at the expense of the long-term.
3. Governed by self-interest, often short-term self-interest.
4. (obsolete) Expeditious, quick, rapid.
   • a 1623, Shakespeare, King John, Act II, scene i, lines 57–61:

     the adverse winds / Whose leisure I have stay'd, have given him time / To land his legions all as soon as I; / His marches are expedient to this town / His forces strong, his soldiers confident.

Synonyms

• advisable, desirable, judicious, politic, prudent, tactical, wise

Related terms

Translations

Noun

expedient (plural expedients)

1. A method or means for achieving a particular result, especially when direct or efficient; a resource.
   • 1906, O. Henry, The Green Door:

     He would never let her know that he was aware of the strange expedient to which she had been driven by her great distress.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, page 709:

     Depressingly, [...] the expedient of importing African slaves was in part meant to protect the native American population from exploitation.

Translations

Further reading

• expedient in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• expedient in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• expedient at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “expedient”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin expedi?ns.

Adjective

expedient (masculine and feminine plural expedients)

1. expedient, convenient

Noun

expedient m (plural expedients)

1. file, record, dossier

Derived terms

• expedientar

Further reading

• “expedient” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Latin

Verb

expedient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of expedi?

Romanian

Etymology

From French expédient.

Noun

expedient n (plural expediente)

1. expedient

Declension