Effects

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ɪˈfɛkts/

Definitions

1. Outcomes that arise as a result of specific influences or causes
2. Changes or results that follow from particular actions or circumstances
3. The outcomes or changes that occur due to certain actions or conditions

Etymology: The plural "effects" is the form that carries the everyday sense of results or consequences, and the singular "effect" comes from Latin "effectus", a past participle of "efficere", meaning "to accomplish or bring about." That verb is built from "ex", "out", and "facere", "to do or make," so an effect is literally something made or brought out of a cause. The English noun arrived in Middle English by way of Old French "effect", which is the same word that gives modern French "effet". The Old English speakers had their own word for this idea. "Fremming" and "fremednes", from the verb "fremman" meaning "to perform or accomplish," held the place that "effect" later took over, and the Latin-derived term displaced them. The verb "effect" entered Middle English in a similar way, from Medieval Latin "effectuare", and partly from the noun itself.

Synonyms: results, consequences, outcomes, impacts, influences

Antonyms: causes, origins, sources, roots, antecedents