效果(xiào guǒ) - effect, result, outcome in Mandarin

效果 (xiào guǒ) is the effect something produces: how well a medicine works, whether a method pays off, what a change actually achieves. It also covers effects in the technical sense, as in 音响效果 and 特殊效果.

The verbs it keeps company with are worth learning as a set. 有效果 is to work, 没有效果 is to do nothing, 起效果 is to take effect, and 效果很好 or 效果不明显 are how people judge it.

The trap is the overlap with 结果. 结果 is whatever happened, good, bad or unexpected; 效果 is how well the thing did the job it was meant to do. A treatment can have a 结果 of the patient getting worse, but that would be described as 没有效果, not a bad 效果.