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Glite Dictionary
✅ Successful result 📅 In force 🪖 Ready for duty 💵 Actual amount
effective

effective

9 4.1
Existing in fact rather than only in theory
  • adjective
  • /ɪˈfɛktɪv/
translation icon : efectivo
  • Ultimately, agencies created more disparate and fragmented systems that lacked cost-effective integration capabilities.
  • effective tax rate
  • effective temperature
  • effective power

You don't need to attach something in order for this to not be effective and real.

Examples

  • We have no effective public health system nationwide either.

  • African Americans have developed effective mechanisms to address social and community problems.

    Academic text (2009)

  • So I know more than anyone how effective stop and search is.

  • Working in secret, our scientists are turning an engineering dream into an effective reality.

    Real Genius (1985)

  • The Constitution is the instrument through which these abstract principles are made effective and by which they are protected.

    Academic text (1999)

  • The weaknesses can compromise effective mental health services to meet the standards of service users.

    Academic text (2018)

  • Each was a serious impediment to an evenhanded and effective operation of the criminal justice system.

    Academic text (2017)

  • Accurate projections and effective cost analysis should be carried out to avoid underfunding.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The fungus must provide its algal symbiont with an environment that makes effective use of physiologically favorable conditions.

    Academic text (2001)

  • The new law is effective immediately and will improve safety in the community.

Antonyms

imaginary
217 3.2

Only in the mind and not real

theoretical
133 6.3

Relating to ideas and basic rules rather than practical use

Compounds

effective deratization
  • Specialized
7.8

Getting rid of rats and other pests from a place

effective persuader
4.6

A person who convinces others to agree or act

How Actual

actual
∞ 1.4
effective
9 4.1
theoretical
133 6.3
nominal
18 7.3

Surface Forms

effective positive
effectively positive

Morphology

effective = effect (semi-transparent) = effect + ive

The morphological link to 'effect' is present, but the sense 'existing in fact; actual' (as in 'effective immediately') is a conventionalized usage that may not be fully predictable.

Etymology

Effective comes from effect ('a result') and the Latin root facere ('to make'), the same root in factory, so it means 'making a real result'. That is why an 'effective' amount or rule is the one that shows the actual, real result, not just the idea on paper.