Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not producing an intended effect; ineffectual.
  • adjective Inadequate; incompetent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not effective; not producing any effect, or the effect desired; wanting effective energy or operation; inefficient; impotent: as, ineffective efforts; an ineffective blow.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not effective; not having the desired effect; ineffectual; futile; inefficient; useless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective not having the desired effect; ineffectual
  • adjective lacking in ability; incompetent or inadequate

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not producing an intended effect
  • adjective lacking in power or forcefulness
  • adjective lacking the ability or skill to perform effectively; inadequate

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

in- +‎ effective

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word ineffective.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.