efficacious
adjUK /ˌɛf.ɪˈkeɪ.ʃəs/ · US /ˌɛf.əˈkeɪ.ʃəs/
Etymology From Old French efficacieux (whence -acious), from Latin efficāx (“efficacious”) + -ous, from efficere (“to effect, to accomplish”); see effect.
1
Formal Effective; possessing efficacy.
- This medicine is efficacious.
- For, that the ordure, which continually gathers on the skin, would ſoon ſtop the pores of it, if the ſweat were not furniſht with ſome efficacious diſſolvent to open and pierce them.1669 August 25, “[An Accompt of Some Books.] III. Ottonis Tachenii Hippocrates Chymicus. Venetiis in 12º.”, in Philosophical Transactions: Giving Some Accompt of the Present Undertakings, Studies and Labours of the Ingenious in Many Considerable Parts of the World, volume IV, number 50, London: Printed by T. N. for John Martyn […] , printer to the Royal Society, published 1670, →OCLC, pages 1019–1020:
4 more examples
- "I see," said he, with a smile, "that you, like myself, are trying the effect of this sweet evening for the headach. I have already found it very efficacious, and so, I think, have you,"—again smiling, as he noticed the deep blush which his sudden appearance had produced.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXXV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 292:
- He would weep for hours together, and I verily believe that to the very end this spoilt child of life thought his weak tears in some way efficacious.1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 218:
- The unquenchable American moralism and the American faith in violence are not just twin symptoms of some character neurosis taking the form of a protracted adolescence, which presages an eventual maturity. They constitute a full-grown, firmly installed national psychosis, founded, as are all psychoses, on the efficacious denial of reality.1969, Susan Sontag, “What’s Happening in America”, in Styles of Radical Will, Kindle edition, Penguin Modern Classics, published 2009, →ISBN, page 195:
- By the end of the tenth century, Edith's humility had inspired a cult of holy wells in Kent, Staffordshire, and Herefordshire. Their waters were deemed efficacious for eye conditions.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 170:
- Derived terms
- efficaciously, efficaciousness, nonefficacious, subefficacious, unefficacious
- Related terms
- effect, effective, effectivity, effectual, efficacity, efficacy, efficiency, efficient