effect

Of the noun: from Middle English effect, from Old French effect (modern French effet), from Latin effectus (“an effect, tendency, purpose”), from efficiō (“accomplish, complete, effect”); see effect as a verb. Displaced Old English fremming, fremednes from fremman.

Of the verb: from Middle English effecten, partly from Medieval Latin effectuō, from Latin effectus, perfect passive participle of efficiō (“accomplish, complete, do, effect”), from ex (“out”) + faciō (“do, make”) (see fact and compare affect, infect) and partly from the noun effect.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈfɛkt/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

• (General American, weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /əˈfɛkt/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪˈfekt/
• (Malaysia, Singapore) IPA^(key): /iˈfɛkt/^[1]
• Homophone: affect (weak vowel merger)
• Hyphenation: ef‧fect
• Rhymes: -ɛkt

effect (countable and uncountable, plural effects)

1. The result or outcome of a cause.

   Synonyms: consequence; see also Thesaurus:cause

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:cause

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […]   The bed was the most extravagant piece.  Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.

   • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist‎^[2], volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

     The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.

   The effect of the hurricane was a devastated landscape.

2. Impression left on the mind; sensation produced.
   • 1832 October, unknown author, “The Tears of Parents”, in The Christian Observer, volume 32:

     patchwork […] introduced for oratorical effect

   • 1832, Washington Irving, Tales of the Alhambra:

     The effect was heightened by the wild and lonely nature of the place.

3. Execution; performance; realization; operation.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:

     That no compunctious visitings of nature / Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between / The effect and it.

   1. (uncountable) The state of being binding and enforceable, as in a rule, policy, or law.

      The new law will come into effect on the first day of next year.

4. (cinematography, computer graphics, demoscene) An illusion produced by technical means (as in "special effect")

   The effect of flying was most convincing.

   • 2018, Jimmy Maher, The Future Was Here: The Commodore Amiga, page 186:

     The colored bands of color that strobe through much of the text and other visual elements are perhaps the most prototypical of all Amiga demoscene effects and, again, are a direct result of the hardware on which Megademo was created to run.

5. (sound engineering) An alteration, or device for producing an alteration, in sound after it has been produced by an instrument.

   I use an echo effect here to make the sound more mysterious.

   I just bought a couple of great effects.

6. (physics, psychology, etc.) A scientific phenomenon, usually named after its discoverer.

   Doppler effect

7. (usually in the plural) Belongings, usually as personal effects.

   The tenant shall pay for the repair of, or replace all such items of the fixtures, fittings, furniture and effects as shall be broken, lost, damaged or destroyed during that time.

   • 1690, “A Relation of the Late Great Revolution in Siam, and the Driving Out of the French”, in A Full and True Relation of the Great and Wonderful Revolution That Hapned Lately in the Kingdom of Siam in the East-Indies, London: Randal Taylor, page 7:

     His Goods, Family, and all his Effects were also ſeiz'd every where, and his Family carried into Priſon.

8. Consequence intended; purpose; meaning; general intent; with to.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Chronicles 34:22:

     They spake to her to that effect.

9. (obsolete) Reality; actual meaning; fact, as distinguished from mere appearance.
   • 1642, John Denham, Cooper's Hill:

     no other in effect than what it seems

10. (obsolete) Manifestation; expression; sign.
    • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

      All the large effects / That troop with majesty.

Not to be confused with affect.

• feckless

effect (third-person singular simple present effects, present participle effecting, simple past and past participle effected)

1. (transitive) To make or bring about; to implement.

   The best way to effect change is to work with existing stakeholders.

   • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 57:

     The offence thus given naturally effected an entire conversion in the queen's sentiments, and when Arthur returned from hunting, like Potiphar's wife, she charges Launfal with attempting her honour.

   • 1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)‎^[3]:

     The punishment for sodomy, when completely effected, was death, and it was frequently inflicted.

   • 1944 July and August, Charles E. Lee, “The "City of Truro"”, in Railway Magazine, page 202:

     The transfer by tender of some 1,300 mail bags was effected smartly, and the "Ocean Mails Special" train was ready at 9.19 a.m.

2. Misspelling of affect.

Effect is often confused with affect. The latter usually suggests influence over existing ideas, emotions and entities. While the former indicates the manifestation of new and/or original ideas or entities:

• “New governing coalitions have effected major changes” indicates that major changes were made as a result of new governing coalitions.
• “New governing coalitions have affected major changes” indicates that before new governing coalitions, major changes were in place, and that the new governing coalitions had some influence over those existing changes.

• “effect”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “effect”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

From Middle Dutch effect, from Old French effect, from Latin effectus. The sense ‘(equitable) security’ borrowed from German Effekt or French effet.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ɛˈfɛkt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ef‧fect
• Rhymes: -ɛkt

effect n (plural effecten, diminutive effectje n)

1. effect
2. (finance, usually in the plural) security, notably bond or stock

   Hypernym: waardepapier

3. (ball games) spin (rotation of a ball)
4. (obsolete) personal effect, belonging

• effectief

• broeikaseffect
• domino-effect
• effectbal
• effectenbeurs
• effectenmakelaar
• sneeuwbaleffect

• Afrikaans: effek
• → Indonesian: efek

• effaict

From Old French effect.

effect m (plural effects)

1. effect

• French: effet

From Latin effectus.

effect oblique singular, m (oblique plural effecz or effectz, nominative singular effecz or effectz, nominative plural effect)

1. effect
2. (law) judgment; decree
   • punir les contrevenantz solonc l’effect des estatut

     Punish the offender according to the decree of the statute

• English: effect
• French: effet
• German: Effekt
• Middle Irish: éifecht
  • Irish: éifeacht