Skip to content
ARCHIEENGLISH
LearnPlayWordsRanking
  • Learn
  • Play
  • Words
  • Ranking
  • Mine
← Vocabulary

convenient

UK/kənˈviː.niənt/US/kənˈvi.njənt/
adjectiveB12 meaningsCommon in everyday speech and writing · #2,706 of 15,258neutral

Convenient means easy and comfortable to use, saving time and trouble. A convenient time, convenient for the station, if it is convenient.

The construction is convenient for a place and convenient for or to a person. It has a sceptical edge in certain contexts: a convenient explanation is one that suits the speaker rather too well, and how convenient is nearly always sarcastic. Note convenience, the noun; convenience store; at your convenience, a formal phrase in letters; and that in British English a public convenience is a public toilet.

Definitions of convenient

  1. 1adjectiveconvenientEasy and comfortable to use; saving time and trouble.B1

    “The flat is convenient for the station and for nothing else.”

    synonyms: handy, practical

  2. 2adjectivesuitingSuiting somebody's purposes rather too neatly.C1

    “That is a very convenient explanation and nobody believed it.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

convenient is a quality of suitability.

Also accepted in games: handy

Where it comes from

Latin conveniens means fitting or agreeing, from convenire — to come together. Convention, convenient and convene all come from that verb, so what is convenient is literally what fits together with everything else.

  1. Latin

    conveniēns — fit, suitable, convenient

  2. Middle English

    convenient

  3. English, today

    convenient

Built from

  • convenio · Latin — to come together, suit

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Adjectives

Practise this word

convenient in the wild

  • Customers benefit from their longer opening hours, more convenient and greater number of locations and shorter cashier lines.

    Convenience store

  • A convenient way to define a soil type is referring to soil horizons.

    Soil type

  • For other soils, it may be more convenient to define the soil type just referring to some properties common to the whole soil profile.

    Soil type

  • In maritime law, it is described as a convenient or safe place where boats usually anchor.

    Roadstead

  • A convenient example of this process is outlined in the case Re Wakim; Ex parte McNally, where there is a conflict between state and federal jurisdictions.

    Accrued jurisdiction

1 / 2

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

the convenio family

conventionconvenientcovenant

convenient — used about once every 392 pages · #2,706 · point at the bar for the others