advantage

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A beneficial factor or combination of factors.
• noun Benefit or profit; gain.
• noun A relatively favorable position; superiority of means.
• noun The first point scored in tennis after deuce.
• noun The resulting score.
• noun Sports A situation in soccer in which the referee has signaled that a foul has been committed but delays making the call because the fouled team has a more favorable position in play. If the fouled team loses this favorable position, the referee then makes the call.
• transitive verb To afford profit or gain to; benefit.
• idiom (take advantage of) To put to good use; avail oneself of.
• idiom (take advantage of) To make use of for selfish reasons; achieve a selfish goal by exploiting.
• idiom (take advantage of) To seduce.
• idiom (to advantage) To good effect; favorably.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Any state, condition, circumstance, opportunity, or means specially favorable to success, prosperity, interest, reputation, or any desired end; anything that aids, assists, or is of service: as, he had the advantage of a good constitution, of an excellent education; the enemy had the advantage of elevated ground; “the advantages of a close alliance,” Macaulay.
• noun Superiority or prevalence: regularly with of or over.
• noun Benefit; gain; profit.
• noun Usury; interest; increase.
• noun A thirteenth article added to a dozen, making what is commonly known as a baker's dozen.
• noun In lawn-tennis, the first point gained after deuce. Commonly called vantage. See lawn-tennis.
• noun To overreach or impose upon
• noun To utilize as a means toward overreaching or imposition.
• noun Synonyms and Advantage, Benefit, Utility, Profit, help, vantage-ground, good, service. Advantage is the possession of a good vantage-ground for the attainment of ulterior objects of desire: as, he has the advantage of a good education. Benefit is a more immediate and realized good: as, a chief benefit of exercise is the improvement of health. Utility is usefulness in the practical or material sense: the utility of an education is a small part of the benefit derived from it. Profit signifies gain, with a suggestion of trade or exchange. A man may have good advantages, but derive from them little benefit or profit; even their utility to him may be small.
• To benefit; be of service to; yield profit or gain to.
• To gain ground or win acceptance for; promote or further.
• To increase, as by interest.
• Reflexively, to cause to be an advantage to; avail (one's self).
• To gain an advantage; be benefited.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun Any condition, circumstance, opportunity, or means, particularly favorable to success, or to any desired end; benefit.
• noun Superiority; mastery; -- with of or over.
• noun Superiority of state, or that which gives it; benefit; gain; profit.
• noun obsolete Interest of money; increase; overplus (as the thirteenth in the baker's dozen).
• noun (Tennis) The first point scored after deuce.
• noun [R.] vantage ground.
• noun to have a personal knowledge of one who does not have a reciprocal knowledge.
• noun to profit by; (often used in a bad sense) to overreach, to outwit.
• transitive verb To give an advantage to; to further; to promote; to benefit; to profit.
• transitive verb [Obs.] to avail one's self of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Any condition, circumstance, opportunity or means, particularly favorable to success, or to any desired end.
• noun Superiority; mastery; — used with of to specify its nature or with over to specify the other party.
• noun Superiority of state, or that which gives it; benefit; gain; profit; as, the advantage of a good constitution.
• noun tennis The score where one player wins a point after deuce but needs the next too to carry the game.
• noun soccer The continuation of the game after a foul against the attacking team, because the attacking team are in a advantageous position.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun benefit resulting from some event or action
• noun the quality of having a superior or more favorable position
• verb give an advantage to
• noun (tennis) first point scored after deuce