effectual
adjective
Simple meaning
Producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihfehkchoouhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪˈfɛktʃuəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect
Producing the intended result; entirely adequate.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect
Used this way, effectual is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect.
Capable of being impressed.
Capable of producing great physical force.
Having force, or having a marked effect.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: producing or capable of producing an intended result
Antonyms
Sense: producing or capable of producing an intended result
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.