# effective

Pronunciation: US say "i-FEK-tiv" /ɪˈfɛktɪv/; AUS say "uh-FEK-tiv" /əˈfektɪv/

## Adjective

1. Successful in producing the intended or desired result.
   - Simple: Working well and doing what it is meant to do.
   - _The new recycling policy proved highly effective at reducing waste._
   - _Their training program was simple but remarkably effective._
2. In force or in operation, often from a stated time or date.
   - Simple: Officially in use, or starting to be used from a certain time.
   - _The ceasefire is effective immediately across the region._
   - _The merger becomes legally effective at midnight tonight._
3. Existing or acting as a particular thing in practice, though not officially or in name.
   - Simple: Being something in real life, even though it is not official.
   - _Although the king still held the throne, his chief minister was the effective ruler of the country._
   - _By the end of the week, the rebels had effective control of most of the northern provinces._
4. Fit, serviceable, and ready to be put to use, as troops able to fight or machines in working order.
   - Simple: Ready and able to do useful work.
   - _Only half the fleet remained effective after the storm._
   - _Fever left the garrison with fewer than two hundred effective troops._

## Noun

5. A soldier who is fit for service and available for active duty.
   - Simple: A soldier who is fit and ready for duty.
   - _By dawn the regiment could muster barely ninety effectives._
   - _Muster rolls from the campaign show the battalion's effectives falling steadily as dysentery spread through the camp._

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Describing an approximate model that captures a system's behavior without representing its fundamental underlying dynamics.
- (adjective) Describing a formal sum or divisor in which none of the coefficients are negative.
- (adjective) Describing a group action in which only the identity element acts trivially; no other element leaves every point unchanged.

## Origin

Latin efficiō ('I make; I bring about') gave effectīvus ('productive; effective'), which came to English through French effectif; in English terms it is effect plus the suffix -ive.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/effective (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).