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 (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

expedience (countable and uncountable, plural expediences)

1. (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

2. 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, [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.

3. Something that is expedient.
4. (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, [Act I, scene i]:

     forwarding this dear expedience

Synonyms

• (fitness or suitableness): expediency
• (speed, haste or urgency): expediency

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ped- (0 c, 64 e)

Translations

quality of being fit or suitable to effect some desired end — see expediency

speed, haste or urgency

• Dutch: haast (nl) c, spoed (nl) m

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, →OCLC.
• “expedience”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “expedience”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.