Expedient

Pronunciation

Origin

From Old French expedient, from Latin expediens (stem expedient-), present participle of expedire ("to bring forward, to dispatch, to expedite; impers. to be profitable, serviceable, advantageous, expedient"), from ex ("out") + pes

Full definition of expedient

Adjective

1. Simple, easy, or quick; convenient.Most people, faced with a decision, will choose the most expedient option.
• Bible, John xvi. 7It is expedient for you that I go away.
• WhatelyNothing but the right can ever be expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a greater good to a less.
2. Governed by self-interest, often short-term self-interest.
• 1861, John Stuart Mill, But the Expedient, in the sense in which it is opposed to the Right, generally means that which is expedient for the particular interest of the agent himself; as when a minister sacrifices the interests of his country to keep himself in place.
3. (obsolete) Quick; rapid; expeditious.
• ShakespeareHis marches are expedient to this town.

Related terms

• expede
• expedience
• expediency
• expedite
• expedition

Noun

1. A method or means for achieving a particular result, especially when direct or efficient; a resource.
• 1906, O. Henry, :He would never let her know that he was aware of the strange expedient to which she had been driven by her great distress.
• 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, page 709:Depressingly, ... the expedient of importing African slaves was in part meant to protect the native American population from exploitation.