''expediency'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''expediency'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250816112328-00-⌔

expediency - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

expediency (countable and uncountable, plural expediencies)

• (uncountable) The quality of being fit or suitable to effect some desired end or the purpose intended; suitability for particular circumstance or situation.
  • ✤ Synonym: expedience
  • ✤ Imperfet governments […] may palliate crimes upon the plea of necessity or expediency; divine wisdom discovers no expediency in vice; […]¹
  • ✤ Much declamation may be heard in the present day against “expediency”, as if it were not the proper object of a Deliberative Assembly, and as if it were only pursued by the unprincipled.²
  • ✤ However, by that time the powerful tides of political unionism, metropolitan fashion and commercial expediency were flowing against the language, at least among the Scottish elites.³
• (uncountable) Pursuit of the course of action that brings the desired effect even if it is unjust or unprincipled.
  • ✤ Synonym: convenience
  • ✤ Utterly neglectful of what he owes to the kingdom which he hopes to regain, Charles has learned but adversity’s worst lesson— expediency.⁴
  • ✤ Others warned the British government’s approach would be imitated, for political expediency, by authorities elsewhere.⁵
• (obsolete) Haste; dispatch.
  • ✤ Synonym: expedience
• (countable) An expedient.

Etymology

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɛkˈspiː.dɪ.ən.si/
• Audio (UK): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. 1810, Thomas Cogan, An Ethical Treatise on the Passions and Affections of the Mind, page 137: ↩

2. 1828, Richard Whately, Elements of Rhetoric, part II, p. 214: ↩

3. 2023, Clive Young, “chapter three: From Union to Devolution”, in Unlocking Scots: The Secret Life of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Luath Press Limited, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 76: ↩

4. 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 258: ↩

5. 2021 July 16, Ben Quinn, “England’s Covid unlocking is threat to world, say 1,200 scientists”, in The Guardian ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

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