inefficient
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Not producing desired results.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnihfishuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnɪˈfɪʃənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Not producing desired results; wasteful
Not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired; inefficacious.
Incapable of, or indisposed to, effective action; habitually slack or unproductive; effecting little or nothing.
noun
A person who cannot or does not work efficiently.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Not producing desired results; wasteful
Used this way, inefficient is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- incompetent , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use inefficient
- “An inefficient campaign against drugs.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Producing / efficient
Cannot
Other combinations
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: not producing desired results
Antonyms
Sense: not producing desired results
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.