- 1療效、功效、有效性（醫學、研究常用「療效」「藥效」；不要和「效率」搞混）
Efficacy is the ability of something to produce the right result — how well it works at the job you gave it. You will see it all the time in medicine and science: the efficacy of a vaccine, a drug, a teaching method. It is a noun, and it is formal. A researcher asks about efficacy; a parent at the table just asks, “Does it work?” Efficacy does not, by itself, tell you about side effects, cost, or speed. A treatment can have high efficacy in a test and still be hard to use in real life. The trap sitting beside it is efficiency. Efficiency is about little waste. Efficacy is about the result. A factory can be efficient (fast, little leftover) and still make the wrong product; a slow medicine can still have strong efficacy. Though actually, even careful writers mix the two, so it is worth slowing down when you see either word in a paper.
From the word’s history
From Old French efficace, from Late Latin efficācia, from efficāx 'efficacious'.
經古法文來自晚期拉丁文 efficācia，源自 efficāx「有效的」。
組成From Old French efficace, from Late Latin efficācia, from Latin efficāx, 'efficacious.' The English ending is the -acy you also see in accuracy.
同家族的字
- efficaciousthe adjective: having this power to produce the result
- efficienteasy to mix up: efficiency is little waste; efficacy is producing the result
- effectsame Latin family of bringing something about
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
efficacynoun/ˈɛf.ɪ.kə.si/
- 1
The ability to produce a desired effect under ideal testing conditions.
- […]and this hath even made me ſuſpect the efficacy of reliques, to examine the bones, queſtion the habits and appurtenances of Saints, and even of Chriſt himſelf.
- No method of verification known to science is applicable to the efficacy of prayer. […] If, then, the efficacy of prayer eludes the test of science, and if even uncertainty may rest upon the connection between an event asked in prayer, and the prayer that sought it, is there any evidence by which the efficacy of prayer may be tested and known?
- 2
A degree of ability to produce a desired effect; effectiveness.
- Toothbrush with improved efficacy
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。