EFFECTUAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does effectual mean? 

• EFFECTUAL (adjective)
  The adjective EFFECTUAL has 2 senses:

1. producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect

2. having legal efficacy or force

  Familiarity information: EFFECTUAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EFFECTUAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect

Synonyms:

effective; effectual; efficacious

Context example:

an efficacious law

Similar:

hard-hitting; trenchant (characterized by or full of force and vigor)

impelling (markedly effective as if by emotional pressure)

impressive; telling (producing a strong effect)

rough-and-ready (crude but effective for the purpose at hand)

Also:

efficacious (marked by qualities giving the power to produce an intended effect)

efficient (being effective without wasting time or effort or expense)

potent; stiff; strong (having a strong physiological or chemical effect)

powerful (having great power or force or potency or effect)

useful; utile (being of use or service)

Attribute:

effectiveness; effectivity; effectuality; effectualness (power to be effective; the quality of being able to bring about an effect)

Derivation:

effectuality; effectualness (power to be effective; the quality of being able to bring about an effect)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having legal efficacy or force

Synonyms:

effectual; legal; sound

Context example:

a sound title to the property

Similar:

valid (well grounded in logic or truth or having legal force)

 Context examples 

Beaufort had taken effectual measures to conceal himself, and it was ten months before my father discovered his abode.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I heard a very warm debate between two professors, about the most commodious and effectual ways and means of raising money, without grieving the subject.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I'm not a doctor only; I'm a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint against you, if it's only for a piece of incivility like tonight's, I'll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed out of this.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Elinor, this eldest daughter, whose advice was so effectual, possessed a strength of understanding, and coolness of judgment, which qualified her, though only nineteen, to be the counsellor of her mother, and enabled her frequently to counteract, to the advantage of them all, that eagerness of mind in Mrs. Dashwood which must generally have led to imprudence.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

It was evident that his mind was not in working order yet, and his ideas needed clarifying, for often in the middle of a plaintive strain, he would find himself humming a dancing tune that vividly recalled the Christmas ball at Nice, especially the stout Frenchman, and put an effectual stop to tragic composition for the time being.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

My watchfulness has been effectual; and though I certainly should be a more interesting object to all my acquaintances were I distractedly in love with him, I cannot say that I regret my comparative insignificance.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

When this method fails, they have two others more effectual, which the learned among them call acrostics and anagrams.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Sir John could do no more; but he did not know that any more was required: to be together was, in his opinion, to be intimate, and while his continual schemes for their meeting were effectual, he had not a doubt of their being established friends.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

This illustrious person had very usefully employed his studies, in finding out effectual remedies for all diseases and corruptions to which the several kinds of public administration are subject, by the vices or infirmities of those who govern, as well as by the licentiousness of those who are to obey.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)