# efficient

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ɪˈfɪʃənt/ · frequency rank #3,484

## Definitions
1. Making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy.
2. Expressing the proportion of consumed energy that was successfully used in a process; the ratio of useful output to total input.
3. Causing effects, producing results; bringing into being; initiating change (rare except in philosophical and legal expression efficient cause = causative factor or agent).
4. effective, efficacious

## Etymology
1398, “making,” from Old French, from Latin efficientem, nominative efficiēns, participle of efficere (“work out, accomplish”) (see effect). Meaning “productive, skilled” is from 1787. Efficiency apartment is first recorded 1930, American English.

## Easily confused with
- **efficiently** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/efficient-vs-efficiently)
- **efficiency** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/efficiency-vs-efficient)

## Common misspellings (11)
`effciient`, `efficcient`, `efficeint`, `efficiennt`, `efficientt`, `efficietn`, `efficinet`, `effiicent`, `eficient`, `efifcient`, `feficient`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/efficient