convenient
- 1Reducing difficulty or effort, or reachable with minimal trouble; expedient and well suited to one's needs.
A late checkout would be far more convenient for travelers with evening flights.
The app makes online banking convenient enough that she rarely visits a branch.
Similareasy, simple, expedient
Oppositeinconvenient
Note
Latin conveniens, "fit, suitable", comes from convenire, "to come together, suit", the same verb behind convene and covenant. A convenient thing is one that comes together with your needs: a working space, a meal, a route. Its opposite is simply inconvenient. Of its near-synonyms, easy is about effort and expedient about advantage, while convenient is about how well something fits the way you live or work.
- 2Suspiciously well suited to someone's purposes, in a way that seems too neat to be accidental or honest.
The witness's convenient memory lapse arrived exactly when the defense needed it.
Critics called the timing of the announcement awfully convenient for the company's stock.
Similarexpedient, opportune, timely, suspicious
Oppositeinconvenient
Note
Irony does the work here: the speaker says the word and means its opposite. Its natural home is the exclamation How convenient that…, aimed at a coincidence that happens to benefit the person it befalls, such as a cold the night before an essay is due. Because the sarcasm lives in tone, a phrase like a convenient excuse can read either way on the page. Adding suspiciously or awfully removes the doubt.
- 3Fit, suitable, and proper for a given purpose or situation.
Feed me with food convenient for me.
1611, The Holy Bible, King James VersionNeither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient.
1611, The Holy Bible, King James VersionNote
Older English used the word for what is fitting or proper, the meaning closest to the Latin behind the everyday "handy" sense. The King James Bible of 1611 asks for "food convenient for me" and warns against jesting "which are not convenient", meaning unseemly rather than awkward. Edward Reynolds in 1640 even pairs it with disconvenient. Read it this way in period texts. In modern writing, suitable or appropriate says it without confusion.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of convenient apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle English convenient, from Latin conveniens ('fit, suitable, convenient'), the present participle of convenire ('to come together, suit'). It is related to convene and compare covenant.