INEFFICIENT

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking the ability or skill to perform effectively; inadequate

Example:

inefficient workers

Synonyms:

ineffective; inefficient

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

incompetent (not qualified or suited for a purpose)

Derivation:

inefficiency (unskillfulness resulting from a lack of efficiency)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not producing desired results; wasteful

Example:

outdated and inefficient design and methods

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

uneconomical; wasteful (inefficient in use of time and effort and materials)

Also:

incompetent (not qualified or suited for a purpose)

ineffective; ineffectual; uneffective (not producing an intended effect)

Antonym:

efficient (being effective without wasting time or effort or expense)

Derivation:

inefficiency (unskillfulness resulting from a lack of efficiency)

Credits

Context examples:

Time spent looking for a new place to surface after each dive would not only be inefficient given the energy required to swim and hunt, but failure to locate a hole in the ice means the animal would drown.

(Antarctic seals may use Earth's magnetic field to navigate while hunting, NSF)

But you slaves—it is too bad to be slaves, I grant—but you slaves dream of a society where the law of development will be annulled, where no weaklings and inefficients will perish, where every inefficient will have as much as he wants to eat as many times a day as he desires, and where all will marry and have progeny—the weak as well as the strong.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A new study by chemists at the University of Arkansas shows that X-ray crystallography, the standard method for determining the structure of proteins, may provide inaccurate information about a critical set of proteins — those found in cell membranes — which in turn could be leading to poor and inefficient drug design.

(Study shows limitations of method for determining protein structure, National Science Foundation)

You must remember, said Summerlee, sourly, that I have a large class in London who are at present at the mercy of an extremely inefficient locum tenens.