expertise

Formsexpertises, expertising, expertised

1. 1
   noununcountable

   A high level of skill or knowledge in a particular field or hobby.

   The surgeon's expertise was evident throughout the long and difficult operation.

   Years of fieldwork gave her considerable expertise in tropical botany.

   Similarskill, knowledge, proficiency, mastery, competence

   Oppositeincompetence, inexperience

   Note

   A borrowing from French that kept its French ending. The -ise stays even in US spelling, and it carries over into the rare verb meaning to supply expert advice: expertised, expertising. The usual construction names the field with in, as in expertise in nuclear fusion. A modifier often says whose knowledge it is, as in local expertise shared with the world's poor.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Advice or an opinion provided by someone with expert knowledge.

   The agency drew on military expertise when planning the evacuation route.

   The insurer ordered an independent expertise, which concluded that the fire began in faulty wiring.

   Similaradvice, assessment, appraisal, evaluation

3. 3
   verbraretransitive

   To provide someone or something with expert knowledge or advice.

   Auditors expertise each claim carefully before the insurer pays anything out.

   Since 1979, we have developed a method for expertising the design of the processes and improving them.

   1985, Energy Research Abstracts

   Similarassess, appraise, evaluate, examine

   Note

   The noun pressed into service as a verb. It is rare and tends to sound like technical jargon, usually taking processes or procedures as its object, as in expertising the design of the processes. Jens O. Parsson's Dying of Money (2011) plays on its oddness: "If experts shall lose their expertise, wherewith shall they be expertised?" In ordinary prose, a plainer verb such as advise is the safer choice.

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