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Effective vs Sure - What's the difference?

effective | sure |

As adjectives the difference between effective and sure

is that effective is having the power to produce a required effect or effects while sure is .

As a noun effective

is (military) a soldier fit for duty.

effective

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Having the power to produce a required effect or effects.
    • The pill is an effective method of birth control.
  • Producing a decided or decisive effect.
    • The president delivered an effective speech!
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • Whosoever is an effective , real cause of doing his neighbour wrong, is criminal.
  • Efficient, serviceable, or operative, available for useful work.
    • How long does it take to make a bunch of civilians an effective military force?
    My effective income after taxes and child support is $500 a month.
    The effective radiated power is determined by multiplying the transmitter power output with the antenna gain.
    The effective voltage of an alternating current is 0.7 times its peak voltage.
  • Actually in effect.
    • The curfew is effective at midnight.
  • Having no negative coefficients.

    • Related terms

    * effect * effectivity * effectual * efficacious * efficacity * efficacy * efficiency * efficient

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (military) A soldier fit for duty.
  • *1876 , , Recollections of the Elkhorn Campaign :
  • *:The Army of the West reached Corinth sometime after the battle of Shiloh. We were 15,000 effectives , and brought Beauregard's effective force up to 45,000 men.
    • ----

    sure

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Physically secure and certain, non-failing, reliable.
  • Certain in one's knowledge or belief.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.}}
  • Certain to act or be a specified way.
  • (obsolete) Free from danger; safe; secure.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Fear not; the forest is not three leagues off; / If we recover that we are sure enough.
  • (obsolete) Betrothed; engaged to marry.
  • * Sir T. More
    • The king was sure to Dame Elizabeth Lucy, and her husband before God.
  • * Brome
    • I presume that you had been sure as fast as faith could bind you, man and wife.

    Synonyms

    * (secure and steadfast) certain, failsafe, reliable * (sense, steadfast in one's knowledge or belief) certain, positive, wis

    Derived terms

    * for sure * surely * sure up (sure)

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Without doubt.
    • Sure he's coming! Why wouldn't he?
    "Did you kill that bear yourself? ?"I sure did!"

    Usage notes

    * Often proscribed in favor of surely. May be informal.

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (rft-sense) Yes, of course.

    • Synonyms

    * certainly, of course, OK, yes

    References

    * 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192830988

    Statistics

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