Expediency: meaning, example and synonyms
Expediencyn. The quality of being convenient or advantageous, often at the expense of principle.
Example
Critics charged that the council had chosen the cheaper site out of mere expediency, ignoring engineers who warned that its soil could not support heavy foundations.
- Part of speech
- noun
- Synonyms
- convenience, advantage, pragmatism, opportunism
- Antonyms
- principle, integrity, scrupulousness
- Memory tip
- Expedient acts speed things up (expedite), whether or not they're right.
Expediency is in batch 10. Study it with the rest of the batch, then pass the batch quiz to learn it. No account needed; progress is saved on this device.
Check yourself: Expediency in context
The general admitted that the alliance was a matter of ______ rather than shared values: both nations simply needed each other's ports for the duration of the war.
Answer: expediency. An alliance built on mutual need, not shared values, is one of convenience. fecundity (fertility), heterogeneity (diversity) and hallmark (distinctive feature) don't fit.
Rather than repair the bridge properly, the officials, for the sake of political ______, patched it before the election and left the structural flaws for their successors.
Answer: expediency. A quick fix timed for the election, leaving real problems for later, is political convenience over principle. indeterminacy (uncertainty), fecundity (fertility) and heterogeneity (diversity) don't fit.