ineffective
Americanadjective
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not effective; not producing results; ineffectual.
ineffective efforts; ineffective remedies.
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inefficient or incompetent; incapable.
an ineffective manager.
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lacking in artistic effect, as a literary work, theatrical production, or painting.
adjective
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having no effect
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incompetent or inefficient
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ineffective
Explanation
Use the adjective ineffective to describe something that doesn't work quite the way it's supposed to. You might complain about your ineffective guard dog, who wags his tail and licks everyone who comes to your house. When you're ineffective, you're unable to accomplish something you're trying to do. You might realize that you're an ineffective babysitter when you can't get the kids to go to bed. Ineffective comes from the Latin prefix in, "not, or opposite of," added to effective, whose Latin root is effectivus, "productive." When something's unproductive, inefficient, or incapable, it's ineffective.
Vocabulary lists containing ineffective
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: in-, im-, il-, ir-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Was largely ineffective and made some poor decisions.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
That finding is important because the reduction in D3 should not be confused with evidence that D2 is ineffective.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
The detectors can also be ineffective as a new crop of AI "humanizing" tools emerges that rewrite AI-generated text to make it appear more human-like, researchers warn.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
Some failures will be genuinely hard to foresee, and a standard that treats all harm as blameworthy will simply be ineffective.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Not only did the mesmer prove ineffective, but the mysterious pair seemed to find it amusing.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
