advantage Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the quality of having a superior or more favorable position
    vantage.
    • the experience gave him the advantage over me
  2. noun (tennis) first point scored after deuce
  3. noun benefit resulting from some event or action
    reward.
    • it turned out to my advantage
    • reaping the rewards of generosity
  4. verb give an advantage to
    • This system advantages the rich

WordNet

Ad*van"tage noun
Etymology
OE. avantage, avauntage, F. avantage, fr. avant before. See Advance, and cf. Vantage.
Definitions
  1. Any condition, circumstance, opportunity, or means, particularly favorable to success, or to any desired end; benefit; as, the enemy had the advantage of a more elevated position.
    Give me advantage of some brief discourse. Shak.
    The advantages of a close alliance. Macaulay.
  2. Superiority; mastery; -- with of or over.
    Lest Satan should get an advantage of us. 2 Cor. ii. 11.
  3. Superiority of state, or that which gives it; benefit; gain; profit; as, the advantage of a good constitution.
  4. Interest of money; increase; overplus (as the thirteenth in the baker's dozen). Obs.
    And with advantage means to pay thy love. Shak.
    Syn. -- Advantage, Advantageous, Benefit, Beneficial. We speak of a thing as a benefit, or as beneficial, when it is simply productive of good; as, the benefits of early discipline; the beneficial effects of adversity. We speak of a thing as an advantage, or as advantageous, when it affords us the means of getting forward, and places us on a "vantage ground" for further effort. Hence, there is a difference between the benefits and the advantages of early education; between a beneficial and an advantageous investment of money.
Ad*van"tage transitive verb
Etymology
F. avantager, fr. avantage. See Advance.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Advantaged present participle & verbal noun Advantaging
Definitions
  1. To give an advantage to; to further; to promote; to benefit; to profit.
    The truth is, the archbishop's own stiffness and averseness to comply with the court designs, advantaged his adversaries against him. Fuller.
    What is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? Luke ix. 25.

Webster 1913