Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Efficacy |
EfficacyNoun1. Capacity or power to produce a desired effect. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "efficacy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Etymology: Efficacy \Ef"fi*ca*cy\, noun. [Latin expression efficacia, from efficax. See Efficacious.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Biology & Biotechnology | The probability of benefit to individuals in a defined population from a medical technology applied for a given medical problem under ideal conditions of use. Efficacy is generally evaluated in controlled trials of an experimental therapy and a control condition. Source: European Union. (references) |
Energy | The amount of energy service or useful energy delivered per unit of energy input. Often used in reference to lighting systems, where the visible light output of a luminary is relative to power input; expressed in lumens per Watt; the higher the efficacy value, the higher the energy efficiency. (references) |
Health | The extent to which a specific intervention, procedure, regimen, or service produces a beneficial result under ideal conditions. Ideally, the determination of efficacy is based on the results of a randomized control trial. (references) |
Medicine | In the clinical pharmacological literature, this term is preferred to "effectiveness" to define:the ability of a drug to produce the purported effect as determined by scientific methods. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: EfficacySynonym: efficaciousness (n). (additional references) |
| Antonym: inefficacy (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Power | Ability; ableness; Adjective: competency; efficacy; efficiency, productivity, expertise (skill) ; validity, cogency; enablement; vantage ground; influence. |
Utility | Noun: utility; usefulness; Adjective: efficacy, efficiency, adequacy; service, use, stead, avail; help; (aid); applicability; Adjective: subservience; (instrumentality); function; (business); value; worth; (goodness); money's worth; productiveness; cui bono; (intention); utilization; (use) step in the right direction. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Quintilian | Without the assistance of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | They should include trials of efficacy. (references) | |
The efficacy and safety of rescue therapy. (references) | ||
Claims of efficacy have been viewed with skepticism. (references) | ||
Business | To this effect, leading brands hire renowned players to demonstrate the efficacy of the new clubs and balls. (references) | |
U.S. biomedical products are well known and highly regarded for their excellent quality, efficacy, and reliability. (references) | ||
U.S. biopharmaceuticals are well known and highly regarded in Taiwan for their product quality, efficacy, and reliability. (references) | ||
Civil Liberties | Zimbabwe | Witchcraft--widely understood to encompass attempts to harm others not only by magic but also by covert means of established efficacy such as poisons--traditionally has been a common explanation for diseases of which the causes were unknown. (references) |
Kenya | Although many traditional indigenous religions include or accommodate belief in the efficacy of witchcraft, they generally approve of harmful witchcraft only for defensive or retaliatory purposes and purport to offer protection against it. Muslim leaders continued to charge that the Government is hostile toward Muslims. (references) | |
Economic History | Venezuela | However the efficacy of these measures remains to be proven. (references) |
Minorities | Central African Republic | The practice of witchcraft is understood widely to encompass attempts to harm others not only by magic, but also by covert means of established efficacy such as poisons. (references) |
Political Economy | GHANA | The Ghana Standards Board, the national testing authority, subscribes to accepted international practices for the testing of imports for purity and efficacy. (references) |
UKRAINE | Product testing and certification generally relate to technical, safety and environmental standards, and efficacy requirements for pharmaceutical and veterinary products. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Uganda | No reports about the efficacy of these efforts were available at year's end. (references) |
Mexico | The STPS conducted regular and periodic inspections of the plants, but the U.S. NAO questioned their efficacy. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | SEAL, n. A mark impressed upon certain kinds of documents to attest their authenticity and authority. Sometimes it is stamped upon wax, and attached to the paper, sometimes into the paper itself. Sealing, in this sense, is a survival of an ancient custom of inscribing important papers with cabalistic words or signs to give them a magical efficacy independent of the authority that they represent. In the British museum are preserved many ancient papers, mostly of a sacerdotal character, validated by necromantic pentagrams and other devices, frequently initial letters of words to conjure with; and in many instances these are attached in the same way that seals are appended now. As nearly every reasonless and apparently meaningless custom, rite or observance of modern times had origin in some remote utility, it is pleasing to note an example of ancient nonsense evolving in the process of ages into something really useful. Our word "sincere" is derived from sine cero, without wax, but the learned are not in agreement as to whether this refers to the absence of the cabalistic signs, or to that of the wax with which letters were formerly closed from public scrutiny. Either view of the matter will serve one in immediate need of an hypothesis. The initials L.S., commonly appended to signatures of legal documents, mean locum sigillis, the place of the seal, although the seal is no longer used -- an admirable example of conservatism distinguishing Man from the beasts that perish. The words locum sigillis are humbly suggested as a suitable motto for the Pribyloff Islands whenever they shall take their place as a sovereign State of the American Union. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
George Washington | 1789-1797 | To the efficacy and permanency of your union a government for the whole is indispensable. |
James Madison | 1809-1817 | Because experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Efficacy" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Efficacy" is used about 513 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 513 | 11,826 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "efficacy": Self Efficacy. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "efficacy": self-efficacy. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
self efficacy | 67 |
efficacy | 61 |
efficacy scale self | 14 |
efficacy rabies vaccine | 6 |
efficacy prayer | 6 |
efficacy teacher | 5 |
definition efficacy | 5 |
efficacy political | 5 |
efficacy propecia | 4 |
efficacy zocor | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "efficacy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | efikasitet (effectiveness, efficiency), efektshmëri (effectiveness, efficiency, performance). (various references) | |
Arabic | فعالية (activity, effectiveness, efficiency, influence, leverage, performance). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | ефикасност (effectiveness, force, virtue), полезно действие (duty, effect). (various references) | |
Chinese | 功效 , 效 (effect, imitate). (various references) | |
Czech | úèinnost (effectiveness, efficiency, virtue). (various references) | |
Danish | effektivitet på det mikrobielle niveau (microbiological efficacy). (various references) | |
Dutch | microbiologische efficiëntie (microbiological efficacy). (various references) | |
Farsi | تاثیر (Hank, Influence, Influx, Sensation), سودمندی (Productivity, Use, Utilization, Utter), اثر (Affect, Clue, Consequence, Effect, Growth, Impress, Impression, Opus, Rake, Relic, Result, Rut, Sign, Symptom, Trace, Track, Tract, Umbrage, Vestige), درجه تاثیر. (various references) | |
Finnish | tehokkuus (effectiveness, efficiency). (various references) | |
French | efficacité (effectiveness, efficiency, operating efficiency). (various references) | |
German | Zugkraft (appeal, attraction, machine effort, pull, sell, tensile force, traction, tractive effort, tractive force, tractive power), Wirkungskraft (effect, effectualness), wirksamkeit (action, activity, effect, effectiveness, effectuality, efficiency, function, potency, virtue). (various references) | |
Greek | αποτελεσματικότητα (effectiveness, efficiency). (various references) | |
Hebrew | יעילות (effectiveness, efficiency). (various references) | |
Hungarian | hatékonyság (effect, effectiveness, efficiency, virtue), hathatóság (cogency, efficiency, potency), hatóerő (agency, effectiveness, efficiency), hatásfok (efficiency). (various references) | |
Indonesian | kemanjuran, kekuatan (energy, erg, might, strength, vigour). (various references) | |
Italian | efficacia (cogency, effectiveness, reactivity worth). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 効能 (benefit, effect, virtue), 効" (effect), 効目 (effect, impression, virtue), 効力 (effect, potency, validity), 効果 (effect, effectiveness, result), 効き目 (effect, impression, virtue), 効 (benefit, effect, efficiency, result, success), 力 (ability, agency, attainment, authority, capability, emphasis, endeavors, energy, exertions, faculty, force, good offices, help, influence, means, might, power, resources, strength, stress, support, vigor), 実効 (efficiency), 奏効 , 利き目 (effect, impression, virtue), 利き (effective, work). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ききめ (effect, impression, virtue), そう"う (achievement, armored, bustle, conduct, deportment, document transmission, draft, fruition, hatch, hatchway, hurry, manuscript, meanwhile, notes, plain food, rousing, running a wheeled vehicle, simple living, success, traveling), きき (brilliance, crisis, damage, demolishing, destroying, disliking, displeasure, dreadful, effective, effectiveness, ghastly, machinery and tools, offense, the Kojiki and Nihonshoki, work), "うのう (benefit, effect, virtue), "うか (chrysanthemum, coin, depression, descent, effect, effectiveness, engineering course, evaluation, fall, furlough, gelatinization, hardening, high price, landing, leave of absence, loud singing, marriage of an Imperial princess to a subject, merits and demerits, mineralize, overhead structure, public imposts, rating, result, school song, sclerosis, taxes, toilet, vulcanization, Yellow Peril), "うりょく (effect, potency, the intensity or illuminating power of light, validity), "うけ" (civil rights, consequent, contribution, effect, guardian, guardianship, services, watching with detachment), "う (10^38, 1st in rank, 7th in rank, be bent, benefit, body cavity, boorish, box, clause, companion, compare with, daimyo, duke, effect, efficiency, entertainment, female phoenix bird, filial piety, first sign of the Chinese calendar, grade A, happiness, head, height, hill, hundred sextillion, hundred undecillion, incense, instep, interest, item, knoll, long ages, lord, luck, main, manuscript, marquis, paragraph, pleasure, prince, proof, public, result, rising ground, same kind, -school, season, sentence, seventh sign of the Chinese calendar, shell, subordinate, success, such, this, threat, thus, to ask, to be in love, to invite, to request, urgent, verbal pause, version, weather), じっ"う (efficiency, execution, performance, practice, realization), ちから (ability, agency, attainment, authority, capability, emphasis, endeavors, energy, exertions, faculty, force, good offices, help, influence, means, might, power, resources, strength, stress, support, vigor). (various references) | |
Korean | 효험. (various references) | |
Manx | fondid (ableness, effectiveness, efficiency, faculty, solidity, stability, sufficency, validity). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | efficacyay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | eficácia microbiológica (microbiological efficacy). (various references) | |
Romanian | eficacitate (effectiveness, efficaciousness, efficiency, expedient), randament (accomplishment, benefit, capability, capacity, effect, efficiency, load, output, outturn, performance, power, rating, return, yield), operativitate (efficiency, promptness). (various references) | |
Russian | сила (arm, energy, force, force of, forcefulness, libido, lustiness, might, nerve, pitch, pith, potency, power, strength, strengths, vehemence, vigor, vigour, vim, violence, virtue), действенность (effectiveness, efficiency, forcefulness, potency). (various references) | |
Scottish | sgoinn (attention, care, neatness, trimness). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | efikasnost (effectiveness, efficiency). (various references) | |
Spanish | eficacia (effectiveness, efficiency, relevance). (various references) | |
Swedish | verkan (action, effect, impression, incidence, operation). (various references) | |
Thai | ความมีประสิทธิ าพ (efficiency). (various references) | |
Turkish | etki (action, bearing, clout, drag, drift, effect, effectiveness, efficiency, force, forcefulness, hold, impact, impress, impression, imprint, incidence, influence, interest, jolt, leaven, penetration, point, potency, pull, purchase, reflection, reflexion, ring, sound, stamp, sway, virtue, weight), yarar (account, advantage, avail, benefit, convenience, gain, grist to the mill, stead, use, utility), tesir (effect, impress, impression, influence, sway). (various references) | |
Ukranian | сила (agency, cloud, force, iron, muscle, nerve, pith, potence, potency, power, strength, vehemence, vigor, vigour, wealth), ефективність (effectiveness, efficiency, potency, strength), ді"вість (effectiveness, execution, force, operability). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tính có hiệu quả (efficaciousness), hiệu lực (efficaciousness, efficiency, validity). (various references) | |
Welsh | effeithiolrwydd. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | praevaleamus, praevaleat, praevalebat, praevalebis, praevalebunt, praevalere, praevalet, praevaluerat, praevaluerint, praevaluerit, praevaluero, praevaluerunt, praevalui, praevaluisse, praevaluit, praevaluitque, virtus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "efficacy": inefficacy. (additional references) | |
| |
"Efficacy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: afficacy, efacacy, effacacy, effcacy, effciacy, effiacy, efficac, efficacity, efficay, efficiacy, effifacy, eficacy. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "efficacy" (pronounced e"fika'sē) |
| 3 | -a' s ē | profligacy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-c-e-f-f-i-y" | |
-4 letters: cafe, caff, ceca, face, fice, fief, fife, fyce, iffy, yaff. | |
-5 letters: ace, aff, aye, cay, eff, fay, fey, fie, ice, icy, iff, yea. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-c-e-f-f-i-y" | |
+2 letters: efficacity, inefficacy. | |
+5 letters: efficaciously. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)45 66 66 69 63 61 63 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references). ..-. ..-. .. -.-. .- -.-. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000101 01100110 01100110 01101001 01100011 01100001 01100011 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)E f f i c a c y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0045 0066 0066 0069 0063 0061 0063 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3972727569676991 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Familiar 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Quotations: Speeches 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
