We have been hearing the word efficacy a lot these days. But what does it mean? Learn the meaning of efficacy today with the Word Counter.
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Kevin
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January 27, 2022
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Common Questions
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According to Your Dictionary, the word efficacy is a noun that means the power of something to produce effects or intended results. In short, the word efficacy means effectiveness.
Efficacy and COVID-19 Vaccines
Recently, the word efficacy has been used a lot in the news to talk about vaccine efficacy against the COVID-19 virus. This public health intervention and pharmacological breakthrough is often covered in the media.
Many different studies have been done on the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccine efficacy. We have also seen their efficacy in real-world applications by preventing severe cases of COVID-19. Their performance levels vary in immunity from person to person and vaccine to vaccine. Still, in a usual clinical setting, the vaccines have high efficacy rates at preventing severe disease and hospitalization.
Vaccines are often studied in large groups in a clinical trial that contains a placebo group and a testing group. This tests the capabilities of the vaccine for prevention and percentage reduction against infection and severe illness.
What Are Translations of the Word Efficacy?
A term for the power or effectiveness of something is also present in many other languages worldwide. If you are planning on speaking with someone who does not have English as a first language or if you are going to be traveling to another country, it can be useful to learn translations of words that you might use.
Take a look at this list of translations to familiarize yourself with how to say efficacy around the world:
- Polish: efektywność, skuteczność
- Dutch: doeltreffendheid
- French: efficience, efficacité
- Finnish: tehokkuus
- Interlingua: efficacia
- Spanish: eficacia
- Portuguese: eficácia
- Romanian: eficacitate
- Japanese: 有効性 (ゆうこうせい, yūkōsei)
- Italian: efficacia
- Russian: эффекти́вность, де́йственность
- Mandarin: 功效 (gōngxiào), 效力 (xiàolì), 效能 (xiàonéng), 效驗, 效验 (xiàoyàn), (of medicine) 藥效, 药效 (yàoxiào), (of therapy or treatment) 療效, 疗效 (liáoxiào)
- Indonesian: khasiat, manjur, ampuh
- German: Wirksamkeit
- Swedish: effektivitet
- Bulgarian: де́йственост
- Slovak: efektívnosť
- Catalan: eficàcia
- Czech: efektivnost, účinnost
What Is the Origin of the Word Efficacy?
According to Your Dictionary, the word efficacy comes from the Old French efficace. This comes from the Late Latin efficacia and Latin efficācia, as well as the Latin efficax and efficac. This word is rooted in Latin, and this same root can be seen in English words like effective.
How Can the Word Efficacy Be Used in a Sentence?
If you plan to discuss vaccines or the effectiveness of something else, it can be important to know how to use the word efficacy in a sentence.
By looking at these example sentences containing the word efficacy, you can learn how to incorporate this word into your vocabulary. Try coming up with your own example sentences for efficacy!
The efficacy of the vaccines against severe COVID-19 cases was studied in a clinical trial observed by the International Scientific Advisory Panel.
The statistics looked great for the efficacy of the blood plasma treatment in patients.
The efficacy of the treatment was promising in initial trials. Still, after mass testing of the new variant, it is less likely that the treatment is as effective as we initially thought.
FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn discussed the efficacy of Hong Kong vaccines compared to American vaccine trials.
While the vaccine has a high efficacy rate, you should still take the preventative measure of self-efficacy and wear a mask to decrease the potential for interactions with the virus. Especially if you have health conditions or have just undergone a surgical procedure, keeping yourself safe is important.
The efficacy was proven in the vaccinated group versus people who had not received the COVID-19 vaccine. The levels of performance were astounding.
What Are Synonyms for the Word Efficacy?
Power Thesaurus lists numerous different words with the same meaning as the word efficacy. These are called synonyms. Since the word efficacy has been used so frequently on the news to refer to COVID vaccines, if you plan to use this word in a different context, it might be useful to use a synonym instead.
- ability
- adequacy
- advantage
- appropriateness
- authority
- avail
- benefit
- capability
- capableness
- capacity
- cogency
- competence
- competency
- effect
- effectiveness
- effectivity
- effectuality
- effectualness
- efficaciousness
- efficacity
- efficiency
- energy
- fitness
- force
- functionality
- helpfulness
- impact
- performance
- point
- potency
- power
- productiveness
- productivity
- proficiency
- punch
- qualifiedness
- strength
- success
- sufficiency
- suitability
- use
- usefulness
- utility
- validity
- validness
- value
- virtue
- weight
What Are Antonyms of the Word Efficacy?
If you are trying to say that something is ineffective or lacks efficacy, it is useful to know antonyms for the word efficacy. By referring to this list of antonyms from Power Thesaurus, you can use concise language and accurate vocabulary:
- adverse effect
- analysis paralysis
- crookedness
- deceit
- deception
- dishonesty
- failure
- falsehood
- falseness
- feebleness
- hypocrisy
- impotence
- impotency
- inability
- inadequacy
- incapableness
- incompetence
- ineffectuality
- ineffectualness
- inefficaciousness
- inefficacy
- inefficiency
- injustice
- insufficiency
- lack of ability
- lack of skill
- negative effect
- negative effects
- negative outcome
- weakness
Conclusion
Overall, the word efficacy is a noun that means the effectiveness of something. In the present day, this term is often used to refer to how well vaccines work.
Vaccine efficacy was studied heavily in trials leading up to the release of the vaccines from different companies. Many of the vaccines for the COVID-19 disease have high efficacy in preventing cases of severe COVID-19 infection.
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