[syn: opportunism, self-interest, self-seeking, expedience]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Expedience \Ex*pe"di*ence\, Expediency \Ex*pe"di*en*cy\,, n.
1. The quality of being expedient or advantageous; fitness or
suitableness to effect a purpose intended; adaptedness to
self-interest; desirableness; advantage; advisability; --
sometimes contradistinguished from moral rectitude or
principle.
[1913 Webster]
Divine wisdom discovers no expediency in vice.
--Cogan.
[1913 Webster]
To determine concerning the expedience of action.
--Sharp.
[1913 Webster]
Much declamation may be heard in the present day
against expediency, as if it were not the proper
object of a deliberative assembly, and as if it were
only pursued by the unprincipled. --Whately.
[1913 Webster]
2. Expedition; haste; dispatch. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Making hither with all due expedience. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
3. An expedition; enterprise; adventure. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Forwarding this dear expedience. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
expedience
n 1: the quality of being suited to the end in view [syn:
expedience, expediency] [ant: inexpedience,
inexpediency]
2: taking advantage of opportunities without regard for the
consequences for others [syn: opportunism, self-interest,
self-seeking, expedience]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
55 Moby Thesaurus words for "expedience":
advantageousness, agreeableness, appropriateness, auspiciousness,
beneficialness, benevolence, benignity, chargedness, class,
cogency, convenience, criticality, crucialness, desert, excellence,
fairness, favorableness, felicitousness, fineness, first-rateness,
fitness, fittingness, goodliness, goodness, grace, healthiness,
helpfulness, kindness, loadedness, meetness, merit, niceness,
opportuneness, pleasantness, pregnancy, profitableness,
propitiousness, propriety, quality, rewardingness, rightness,
ripeness, seasonableness, skillfulness, soundness, suitability,
superiority, timeliness, usefulness, validity, value, virtue,
virtuousness, wholeness, worth