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Expedient vs Sterling - What's the difference?

expedient | sterling | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between expedient and sterling

is that expedient is simple, easy, or quick; convenient while sterling is of, or relating to British currency, or the former British coinage.

As nouns the difference between expedient and sterling

is that expedient is a method or means for achieving a particular result, especially when direct or efficient; a resource while sterling is the currency of the United Kingdom; especially the pound.

As a proper noun Sterling is

a Scottish surname, variant of Stirling.

expedient

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Simple, easy, or quick; convenient.
  • Most people, faced with a decision, will choose the most expedient option.
  • * Bible, John xvi. 7
  • It is expedient for you that I go away.
  • * Whately
  • Nothing but the right can ever be expedient , since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a greater good to a less.
  • Governed by self-interest, often short-term self-interest.
  • * 1861 , John Stuart Mill,
  • But the Expedient', in the sense in which it is opposed to the Right, generally means that which is ' expedient for the particular interest of the agent himself; as when a minister sacrifices the interests of his country to keep himself in place.
  • (obsolete) Quick; rapid; expeditious.
  • * Shakespeare
  • His marches are expedient to this town.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A method or means for achieving a particular result, especially when direct or efficient; a resource.
  • * 1906 , O. Henry, :
  • He would never let her know that he was aware of the strange expedient to which she had been driven by her great distress.
  • * 2009 , (Diarmaid MacCulloch), A History of Christianity , Penguin 2010, page 709:
  • Depressingly, [...] the expedient of importing African slaves was in part meant to protect the native American population from exploitation.

    sterling

    Noun

  • The currency of the United Kingdom; especially the pound.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“… among the objects stolen was the famous parure of Black Diamonds, for which a bid of half a million sterling had just been made and accepted. […]”}}
  • Former British gold or silver coinage of a standard fineness: for gold 0.91666 and for silver 0.925.
  • * S. M. Leake
  • Sterling was the known and approved standard in England, in all probability, from the beginning of King Henry the Second's reign.
  • Sterling silver, or articles made from this material.
  • A structure of pilings that protects the piers of a bridge; a starling.
  • Adjective

    (-)
  • of, or relating to British currency, or the former British coinage.
  • of, relating to, or made from sterling silver.
  • Of acknowledged worth or influence; high quality; authoritative.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2014 , date=December 13 , author=Mandeep Sanghera , title=Burnley 1-0 Southampton , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Southampton had been hoping to get back to winning ways to prove to their critics there was substance to their sterling start to the season.}}
  • Genuine; true; pure; of great value or excellence.
  • Anagrams

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