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INEFFECTUAL

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

 I. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not producing an intended effectplay

Example:

ineffective legislation

Synonyms:

ineffective; ineffectual; uneffective

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

toothless (lacking necessary force for effectiveness)

unproductive (not producing desired results)

Also:

idle (not in action or at work)

inefficacious (lacking the power to produce a desired effect)

inefficient (not producing desired results; wasteful)

powerless (lacking power)

useless (having no beneficial use or incapable of functioning usefully)

Attribute:

effectiveness; effectivity; effectuality; effectualness (power to be effective; the quality of being able to bring about an effect)

Derivation:

ineffectuality; ineffectualness (lacking the power to be effective)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking in power or forcefulnessplay

Example:

like an unable phoenix in hot ashes

Synonyms:

ineffective; ineffectual; unable

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

impotent (lacking power or ability)

Derivation:

ineffectuality; ineffectualness (lacking the power to be effective)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Producing no result or effectplay

Example:

an unavailing attempt

Synonyms:

futile; ineffectual; meaningless; otiose; unavailing

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

useless (having no beneficial use or incapable of functioning usefully)

Derivation:

ineffectuality; ineffectualness (lacking the power to be effective)

Credits

 Context examples: 

There were three minnows in the pool, which was too large to drain; and after several ineffectual attempts to catch them in the tin bucket he forbore.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Come!” Receiving no answer to these taunts, he would mount in his wrath to the words “swindlers” and “robbers”; and these being ineffectual too, would sometimes go to the extremity of crossing the street, and roaring up at the windows of the second floor, where he knew Mr. Micawber was.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Pardon this gush of sorrow; these ineffectual words are but a slight tribute to the unexampled worth of Henry, but they soothe my heart, overflowing with the anguish which his remembrance creates.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I pass over Mr. Wickfield's proposing my aunt, his proposing Mr. Dick, his proposing Doctors' Commons, his proposing Uriah, his drinking everything twice; his consciousness of his own weakness, the ineffectual effort that he made against it; the struggle between his shame in Uriah's deportment, and his desire to conciliate him; the manifest exultation with which Uriah twisted and turned, and held him up before me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead and found a passage to life, aided only by one glimmering and seemingly ineffectual light.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)




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