1 being effective without wasting time or effort or expense; "an efficient production manager"; "efficient engines save gas" [ant: inefficient]
2 able to accomplish a purpose; functioning effectively; "people who will do nothing unless they get something out of it for themselves are often highly effective persons..."-G.B.Shaw; "effective personnel"; "an efficient secretary"; "the efficient cause of the revolution" [syn: effective]
Etymology1398, "making," from Latin efficientem (nominative efficiens), preposition of efficere "work out, accomplish" (see effect). Meaning "productive, skilled" is from 1787. Efficiency apartment is first recorded 1930, American English.
making good use of resources
using a particular proportion of available energy
Efficient can relate to:
able, active, adequate, au fait, banausic, capable, competent, economic, effective, effectual, efficacious, equal to, feasible, fit, fitted, fitted for, functional, go, journeyman, operable, operational, operative, practicable, practical, pragmatic, productive, proficient, qualified, realizable, suited, thrifty, unwasteful, up to, up to snuff, well-fitted, well-qualified, well-suited, workable, worthy