expedience
English
Etymology
From Middle English expedience, from Old French expedience, from Late Latin expedientia, from Latin expediens.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɛk.spiː.dɪ.əns/
Audio (UK) (file)
Noun
expedience (countable and uncountable, plural expediences)
- (uncountable) The quality of being fit or suitable to cause some desired end or the purpose intended; propriety or advisability under the particular circumstances of a case.
- April 11 1690, John Sharp, sermon preached at White-Hall
- to determine concerning the expedience of actions
- April 11 1690, John Sharp, sermon preached at White-Hall
- Speed, haste or urgency.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:
- making hither with all due expedience
- 2008, Thomas Dyja, Walter White: The Dilemma of Black Identity in America (page 178)
- The sense of expedience that allowed White to cut deals and keep moving had made many, mistakenly, see him as shallow or, worse, unprincipled.
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- Something that is expedient.
- (obsolete) An expedition; enterprise; adventure.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:
- forwarding this dear expedience
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Synonyms
- (fitness or suitableness): expediency
- (speed, haste or urgency): expediency
Related terms
English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ped- (0 c, 48 e)
Translations
quality of being fit or suitable to effect some desired end — see expediency
speed, haste or urgency
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something that is expedient
References
- OED2
- expediency in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
- expedience in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
- expedience at OneLook Dictionary Search
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “expedience”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.