convenient

English

Etymology

From Middle English convenient, from Latin conveniens (“fit, suitable, convenient”), present participle of convenire (“to come together, suit”); see convene and compare covenant.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˈviːniənt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kənˈvinjənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧ve‧nient

Adjective

convenient (comparative more convenient, superlative most convenient)

1. Serving to reduce a difficulty, or accessible with minimum difficulty; expedient.

   Synonyms: expedient, simple, easy

   Antonym: inconvenient

   Fast food might be convenient, but it's also very unhealthy.

   • 1957 October, “Prototype Tube Trains For London Transport”, in Railway Magazine, page 688:

     Some re-arrangement of equipment in the driving cars has produced a more convenient working space for the driver.

2. Suspicious due to suiting someone's purposes very well.

   How convenient that you caught a cold the night before your essay was due.

3. (obsolete) Fit; suitable; appropriate.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 30:8:

     Feed me with food convenient for me.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ephesians 5:4:

     Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient.

   • 1640, Edward Reynolds, A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man:

     […] continual drinking is most convenient to the distemper of an hydropick body, though most disconvenient to its present welfare.

Derived terms

• convenientness
• disconvenient
• nonconvenient
• superconvenient
• ultraconvenient
• unconvenient

Related terms

• convene
• convenience
• conveniently
• supervenient

Translations

of or pertaining to convenience; simple; easy; expedient

Arabic: مُنَاسِب (munāsib), مُلَائِم (mulāʔim) Armenian: հարմար (hy) (harmar) Bashkir: уңайлы (uñaylı) Basque: egoki, eroso Belarusian: зру́чны (zrúčny) Bulgarian: удо́бен (bg) (udóben), улесняващ (bg) (ulesnjavašt) Catalan: convenient (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 方便 (zh) (fāngbiàn) Czech: pohodlný (cs) Dutch: geschikt (nl), gemakkelijk (nl), gelegen (nl), handig (nl) Esperanto: konvena, oportuna (eo) Finnish: mukava (fi), kätevä (fi), sopiva (fi) French: commode (fr), pratique (fr), convénient (fr) Galician: conveniente (gl) Georgian: მოხერხებული (moxerxebuli), მოსახერხებელი (mosaxerxebeli), შესაფერისი (šesaperisi), სათანადო (satanado), კომფორტული (ḳomporṭuli) German: bequem (de), einfach (de), gelegen (de), genehm (de) (obsolete), günstig (de), passend (de), praktisch (de) Gothic: 𐌲𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (gatils) Greek: βολικός (el) (volikós) Ancient: εὐμαρής (eumarḗs) Hebrew: נוח (he) m (noakh), נוחה f (nokha) Hindi: सुविधाजनक (suvidhājnak) Hungarian: kényelmes (hu) Icelandic: hentugur Interlingua: conveniente Irish: sásta, áiseach, acrach, áisiúil Italian: conveniente (it), comodo (it) Japanese: 便利 (ja) (べんり, benri) Korean: 편리하다 (ko) (pyeollihada), 편하다 (ko) (pyeonhada) Latin: commodus, opportūnus Latvian: ērts Macedonian: зго́ден (zgóden), по́годен (pógoden), по́волен (póvolen), удобен (udoben) Maltese: konvenjenti Norman: c'mode (Jersey) Norwegian: praktisk Plautdietsch: hendich Polish: dogodny (pl) Portuguese: conveniente (pt), cómodo (pt) (Portugal), cômodo (pt) (Brazil) Romanian: comod (ro) Russian: удо́бный (ru) (udóbnyj) Sanskrit: सुगम (sa) (sugama) Scottish Gaelic: goireasach Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: зго̏дан, у̏добан Roman: zgȍdan (sh), ȕdoban (sh) Slovak: pohodlný Slovene: udoben (sl) Spanish: conveniente (es), cómodo (es) Swedish: praktisk (sv) Turkish: elverişli (tr), kullanışlı (tr), münasip (tr), muvâfık (tr), rahat (tr), uygun (tr) Ukrainian: зру́чний (zrúčnyj) Vietnamese: tiện lợi (vi) Welsh: cyfleus (cy)

Further reading

• “convenient”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “convenient”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.