Browse Definitions :

Expedite or expediate?

Writing for Business

Which is correct?

To prevent a crippling worm attack, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urged that all users _______ application of the patch.

a. expedite

b. expediate

Answer: a.

Explanation:

Expedite is by far the better choice here.

Although I hate to have to report this, expediate is gaining acceptance as a word — although I’m happy to report that it’s not in very many dictionaries. It means expedite, which means to do something promptly or to speed up a process. I expect this is another word created because it was being used. People probably made it up as a verb form of expedient. What next — expediation instead of expedition? I’m too scared to look.

Expediate comes to me via my husband, who works at an IT firm (which shall remain nameless to prevent me from having drinks tossed in my face at the summer mixer). A coworker used it in a construction similar to the one I used above. The hub’s workplace is a fruitful source of blog fodder — his boss inspired the mute point post.

Expediate was featured in the Worthless Word for the Day list.

What horrific grammatical errors are you hearing in the wilds of  IT and business? Let me know!

Dig Deeper on Writing for Business

Networking
Security
  • timing attack

    A timing attack is a type of side-channel attack that exploits the amount of time a computer process runs to gain knowledge about...

  • privileged identity management (PIM)

    Privileged identity management (PIM) is the monitoring and protection of superuser accounts that hold expanded access to an ...

  • possession factor

    The possession factor, in a security context, is a category of user authentication credentials based on items that the user has ...

CIO
  • Systems Modeling Language (SysML)

    Systems Modeling Language (SysML) helps teams design, develop, test and deploy complex physical systems.

  • business process reengineering (BPR)

    Business process reengineering (BPR) is a management practice in which business processes used are radically redesigned to ...

  • innovation management

    Innovation management involves the process of managing an organization's innovation procedure, starting at the initial stage of ...

HRSoftware
  • employee resource group (ERG)

    An employee resource group is a workplace club or more formally realized affinity group organized around a shared interest or ...

  • employee training and development

    Employee training and development is a set of activities and programs designed to enhance the knowledge, skills and abilities of ...

  • employee sentiment analysis

    Employee sentiment analysis is the use of natural language processing and other AI techniques to automatically analyze employee ...

Customer Experience
  • customer profiling

    Customer profiling is the detailed and systematic process of constructing a clear portrait of a company's ideal customer by ...

  • customer insight (consumer insight)

    Customer insight, also known as consumer insight, is the understanding and interpretation of customer data, behaviors and ...

  • buyer persona

    A buyer persona is a composite representation of a specific type of customer in a market segment.

Close