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
• The whole thing is effortful, with a potential for embarrassment.
  — Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 25 Dec. 2023
• 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
• The other digression follows Joe Clayton, a discontented ranch hand, and his effortful rise to directorial stardom in early Hollywood.
  — Sam Thielman, The New Yorker, 21 July 2023

Last Updated: 17 Oct 2024