Economic - economical

You searched for economic and (or or) economical. This page gives one specific piece of advice: it may not contain what you were looking for. To see other pages that have related information, see the 'disambiguation' page at Economic - economical - economics - economy..

Do not confuse the two adjectives economic and economical. Each describes matters relating to one of a group of closely related but different nouns (see economy}.

• Economic relates to matters inside the subject of economics - whose field of interest is the economy, in the sense of 'the whole system of trade, finance and productive [in money terms] organisations in a country', or, in the case of the global economy, the whole world.
  • Economic is also sometimes used with the same meaning as economical; but you are advised not to do so. If English is not your first language, you may stumble over idiomatic usage. If you are a native speaker, it may still lead to unintended ambiguity.
• Economical is the better adjective to use fro the meaning of economy about 'saving' - money, effort or similar things. Good housekeepers may be "economical" with their shopping, in only buying cheaper cuts of meat, or not buying luxuries; good researchers are "economical with their efforts." A witness may even be "economical with the truth"; the suggestion is that the whole truth has not been told, that the witness has chosen to suppress some of the facts.