How to Use effortful in a Sentence

effortful

adjective

• Hilary Swank’s turn as the crafty FBI agent on the gang’s trail is effortful rather than effortless.
  — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 17 Aug. 2017
• For the first time since van den Brand began her experiments, the rat moved one of its back legs on its own—a small, effortful step.
  — Ferris Jabr, Scientific American, 31 May 2012
• That’s for the story to unfold, which is done with effective if sometimes effortful care over the next two hours.
  — Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 1 May 2020
• Antigone’’ is not, and Page’s effortful struggles appeared to throw Vital off her game.
  — Don Aucoin, BostonGlobe.com, 28 Mar. 2018
• Cook at least one effortful meal per day in the daytime: either breakfast, lunch, or a robust snack.
  — Ars Staff, Ars Technica, 15 Mar. 2020
• The more difficult or effortful something is, the less likely people are to do that.
  — Roger Dooley, Forbes, 10 May 2021
• But to the director Emma Miller’s credit, that bout is a long, real-time slog up and down the piste, effortful and tough, and a little ugly.
  — Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2018
• Any of these types of fatigue tends to magnify how effortful tasks feel, Pychyl says.
  — Sarah Digiulio, Good Housekeeping, 5 June 2021
• Setting Robards aside, which isn’t easy, Hanks’ turn is valiant but effortful and is the film’s one casting misstep.
  — Michael Phillips, Detroit Free Press, 11 Jan. 2018
• Greg, the awkward cousin attached to a billionaire media-mogul clan, is a creature of effortful mimicry.
  — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 15 Oct. 2019
• But those who take pleasure in the effortful attention required by some puzzles and games to keep up and not get lost will find this book a rewarding challenge.
  — Kathleen Rooney, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2018
• By comparison, the crispy-fish dish, which resembles a hornet’s nest that’s been battered and fried, is effortful and ungainly.
  — The New Yorker, 8 Oct. 2021
• Alejandro and Elizabeth speak of them in the humorously effortful poetic terms of the art world.
  — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Mar. 2023
• Thinking, on its own, is surprisingly effortful and even a little bit boring, and people will do almost anything to avoid it.
  — Matthew Baldwin, The Conversation, 30 Mar. 2022
• Maiworm is the conscience of the play, ready to defend her incremental, effortful, impossible work, even when she’s challenged on it.
  — Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2022
• Ken Ueno’s score is subtly chant-like, serving less to announce itself as to empower the performers on their effortful path to self-expression.
  — Los Angeles Times, 15 Apr. 2022
• Their sound unrefined and their performance effortful, these singers were compelling in a way professionals couldn’t be.
  — New York Times, 1 July 2022
• Yet there still isn’t enough story here, just a premise that doesn’t develop simply by being illustrated in broad, effortful fashion.
  — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 1 Oct. 2021
• Greer Grimsley’s resonant bass-baritone was here faded and effortful, and not always easy to follow.
  — New York Times, 3 Apr. 2022
• Bailey is suitably bumptious but effortful as Harry, but the drama suffers most with the underwritten and over-emoting Holly and Anna.
  — David Benedict, Variety, 20 June 2023
• But doing so always feels subtly effortful, like speaking a fluent but not native second language.
  — Alex Hutchinson, Outside Online, 28 May 2022
• Her effortful retreat from the world appears to be almost fruitless, in every sense: a care package of apples delivered midway through her stay brings her to grateful tears, shed both for the kindness and the nutritional content of the gesture.
  — Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2017
• Babies attentively watch those around them, and use that information to guide their own effortful behavior.
  — Julia Leonard, Smithsonian, 25 Sep. 2017
• Happily obsessive over the tiniest detail, his great talent is making even the most effortful creations look effortless.
  — Nicole Phelps, Vogue, 1 Feb. 2018
• Holmes’s famous Muppet baritone becomes a facet of her effortful social clumsiness.
  — Molly Fischer, The New Yorker, 13 June 2022
• Despite that, and a series of effortful numbers Genao sings bravely, her story, which is almost entirely internal, recedes.
  — Jesse Green, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2023
• While the earliest work sometimes seems effortful, straining after images, the somewhat later work feels more natural and authentic.
  — Nancy Lord, Anchorage Daily News, 9 Sep. 2019
• Once customers are used to bypassing the checkout process, the conventional supermarket experience will seem overly effortful to many of them.
  — Roger Dooley, Forbes, 8 Sep. 2021
• There are other passages where the prose feels clunky and effortful, and some readers may feel that the author drops the proverbial stitch in the delicate work of storytelling in favor of addressing historical, social and political issues.
  — Washington Post, 4 Jan. 2021
• On the contrary, their scrambly, effortful styles put Federer’s qualities into even sharper focus.
  — Kevin Craft, The Atlantic, 15 Sep. 2022

Last Updated: 27 Aug 2024