expedience

from 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}]
    
from 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]
    
from 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

    

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