Meaning & use
advantage
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
Something that puts you in a better position than others or makes a situation more favorable.
Grammar: Often followed by of or over: an advantage over rivals.
Patterns
- an advantage over someone
- the advantage of something
- have an advantage
Being tall gives her an advantage in basketball.
The main advantage of this phone is its battery life.
Speaking two languages is a real advantage.
nounsingularsport
In tennis, the point won after deuce.
Grammar: Used as a score call: advantage Smith.
Patterns
- advantage player
The umpire called advantage Williams.
She won the next point to take advantage.
Word forms
| plural | advantages |
|---|
Common combinations
- take advantage of
- Take advantage of the free trial.
- to your advantage
- The delay worked to our advantage.
- competitive advantage
- Fast delivery is our competitive advantage.
- unfair advantage
- He had an unfair advantage.
Synonyms and how they differ
- benefit
- Benefit is a good result, while advantage is a favorable position compared with others.
- edge
- Edge is informal and means a slight lead.
- asset
- Asset is a useful quality or resource that someone has.
Opposites
Word family
- advantageous adjective
- helpful or favorable
- disadvantage noun
- an unfavorable condition
- advantaged adjective
- in a favorable position
Commonly confused: advantage or advantage?
advantage vs advantage
Not the same as advance, which means forward movement.
Practice
Our team had a big ______ because we knew the field well.
Choose one answer.
Advantage means a favorable position. The others look similar but mean something else.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “advantage”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.