Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Not efficient, as:
- adj. Lacking the ability or skill to perform effectively; incompetent: an inefficient worker.
- adj. Not producing the intended result; ineffective: an inefficient campaign against illegal drugs.
- adj. Wasteful of time, energy, or materials: an inefficient design; outdated and inefficient methods.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not efficient; not producing or not capable of producing the desired effect; incapable; incompetent; inadequate: as, inefficient measures; an inefficient police.
Wiktionary
- adj. Not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired; inefficacious; as, inefficient means or measures.
- adj. Incapable of, or indisposed to, effective action; habitually slack or remiss; effecting little or nothing; as, inefficient workers; an inefficient administrator.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired, or achieiving the effect by unnnecessary and excessive expenditure of resources; inefficacious.
- adj. Incapable of, or indisposed to, effective action; habitually slack or remiss; effecting little or nothing
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lacking the ability or skill to perform effectively; inadequate.
- adj. not producing desired results; wasteful.
Etymologies
- in- + efficient (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Amiridis and other school officials, wary of potential opposition from political leaders who have already criticized colleges and universities for what they describe as inefficient and duplicative growth, stress that the Greenville medical program will not be a "new" medical school.”
“SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, on Monday, former US president Bill Clinton fired back and railed against what he called inefficient spending of AIDS funds and said many countries are misspending foreign aid.”
Pacific Free Press - Hard Truths for Hard Times - Progressive opinion, dissident news
“Cameron attacked Labour's record, blaming Brown for what he described as inefficient and chaotic public services.”
“A report released in June slammed failures in Australia's quarantine systems which it described as inefficient, underfunded and lacking diligence.”
“A report released in June slammed failures in Australia's quarantine systems, which it described as inefficient, underfunded and lacking diligence.”
“This is, at its very essence, not fair to those who are involved in 'inefficient' industries.”
“Any economy of 300 million is perfectly capable of filling in inefficient labor slots.”
“In other words, Steve thinks the competitive market for professors is resulting in inefficient contracts, while I believe that, absent any reason for market failure, the labor contracts we observe are likely to be efficient.”
Tenure and Non-Profits, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“Maybe being time consuming and inefficient is the real value of their service.”
“To phase out and rationalize over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies while providing targeted support for the poorest.”
The Huffington Post: Kelly Rigg: Your Tax Dollars at Work: Helping BP and Exxon Kill Clean Energy
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘inefficient’.
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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-ent
salient, sentient, sentiment, prominent, eminent, apparent, fervent, placement, predicament, malevolent, maleficent, beneficent and 89 more...
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flight plan
words that remind me of airline travel
sardines, cramped, squashed, stuffy, odor, crick, boredom, imposition, bureaucracy, incompetent, inefficient, impatient and 25 more...
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Pruufreadr's Words
mica, leaf, geologist, geology, motocross, marshmallow, marshlands, everlasting, fidelity, whiskey, amazingly, forgotten and 47 more...
Tweets
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