expedience

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Desirableness

Nouns

1. expedience, expediency, desirableness, desirability, advisability, eligibility, seemliness, fitness, utility, propriety, opportunism, convenience, timeliness, suitability. See possibility.

2. [golden] opportunity, occasion, high time; critical or crucial moment, zero hour, moment of truth, crunch, pinch; turning point. Informal, when push comes to shove, nick of time.

Verbs

1. be expedient, timely, or suitable, suit or befit the occasion, strike the right note.

2. seize the moment, carpe diem, take the opportunity, commit oneself, take the bull by the horns; capitalize on, make hay while the sun shines, strike while the iron is hot.

Adjectives — expedient, acceptable, convenient, worthwhile, meet, fitting, fit, due, proper, eligible, seemly, becoming, opportune, in season, suitable, timely, well-timed, auspicious, right, seasonable.

Adverbs — expediently, conveniently; in the right place, at the right moment.

Quotations — We do what we must, and call it by the best names (Emerson), In every sort of danger, there are various ways of winning through, if one is ready to do and say anything whatever (Socrates), Custom adapts itself to expediency (Tacitus), You can't learn too soon that the most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency ( W Somerset Maugham), No man is justified in doing evil on the grounds of expediency (Theodore Roosevelt).

Antonyms, see inexpedience.