advantageous

UK/ˌædvənˈteɪd͡ʒ(i)əs/US/ˌædvənˈteɪd͡ʒ(i)əs/

adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,251 of 15,258leans written

Advantageous means putting you in a better position than before. An advantageous position, mutually advantageous, advantageous terms.

It is the formal word of contracts and negotiations, where mutually advantageous is the polite way of saying both sides gain. Note the shift in sound from advantage, which trips up spellers and speakers alike.

Definitions of advantageous

1adjectiveadvantageousPutting you in a better position than before.C1
“Speaking Spanish would be advantageous for this job.”

advantageous is a quality.

Where it comes from

Middle French avantageus comes from avantage, from avant, before, from Latin ab ante.

Middle French
avantageus
English, today
advantageous

From advantage + ous or from Middle French avantageus (French avantageux). See advantage.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

advantageous in the wild

If a plant has favorable traits, it can continue to pass down its advantageous genetic information to its offspring.
Cutting (plant)
Selective sweeps happen when newly appeared (and hence still rare) mutations are advantageous and increase in frequency.
Genetic hitchhiking
A player with the initiative will often seek to maneuver their pieces into more and more advantageous positions as they launch successive attacks.
Initiative (chess)
The mating plug plays an important role in sperm competition and may serve as an alternative and more advantageous strategy to active mate guarding.
Mating plug
Although the spiral is tilted away from us, with only a thin sliver in view, such a perspective can be advantageous for astronomers.
NGC 5775

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

advantage

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