What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Expedient vs Exponent - What's the difference?

expedient | exponent |

As nouns the difference between expedient and exponent

is that expedient is a method or means for achieving a particular result, especially when direct or efficient; a resource while exponent is one who expounds, represents or advocates.

As an adjective expedient

is simple, easy, or quick; convenient.

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.

    exponent

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who expounds, represents or advocates
  • (mathematics) The power to which a number, symbol or expression is to be raised. For example, the 3 in x^3.
  • (mathematics) The result of a logarithm, between a base and a power. For example the 2 in \log_b(p)=2.
  • (linguistics) A manifestation of a morphosyntactic property.
  • Derived terms

    * exponent of inseparability