How to Use ineffectual in a Sentence

ineffectual

adjective
  • An odd shifting of scale is present in the oversized head and the tiny ineffectual hand.
    Dallas News, 23 June 2022
  • But, as has been the case in the last three elections here, Beijing’s ploys were ineffectual.
    Eryk Michael Smith, Fox News, 4 May 2024
  • But amid the ineffectual chaos, there is now a push for order.
    New York Times, 29 Dec. 2021
  • Wind chills in the 30s much of the day were perhaps somewhat offset by the abundant, if rather ineffectual, sun.
    Ian Livingston, Washington Post, 2 Jan. 2024
  • And when schools don’t act — or when their efforts to root out abuse are ineffectual — justice is not served.
    Washington Post, 1 May 2017
  • One girl served as the Supreme Leader, another as the ineffectual President, and the rest of the class united against them.
    Azadeh Moaveni, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2023
  • In her voice, the inner lives of Korvette’s seething, ineffectual men come bubbling to the surface.
    Dan Piepenbring, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2017
  • Sounds like something Logan Roy would say to his ineffectual sons in the middle of a hostile takeover.
    Zoe Guy, Vulture, 30 Apr. 2024
  • While most are in favor of Musk selling, some find the move ineffectual—at least from a tax perspective.
    Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz, 8 Nov. 2021
  • So does this mean that the writerly anti-Trump right is ineffectual?
    E.j. Dionne Jr., The Mercury News, 1 June 2017
  • The response from the rest of society to this predicament has ranged from callous to ineffectual.
    J.c. Pan, The New Republic, 17 Apr. 2020
  • To dismiss Trump as ineffectual or anomalous is to miss the broader point.
    Chris Cillizza, CNN, 31 May 2017
  • Weak, ineffectual, riddled by inflation, and a work force that won't go back to work.
    ABC News, 12 Dec. 2021
  • The hapless Phils did know when to sell high on him, moving him to the Cubs for $65K and a hodgepodge of relatively ineffectual players at the end of the season.
    Tony Blengino, Forbes, 4 Oct. 2022
  • But what was true of Afghanistan, however ineffectual many of our efforts there were, isn't true here.
    W. James Antle Iii, The Week, 17 Mar. 2022
  • In the case of the first forum, Reddit’s crackdown was too little, too late; in the case of the second, the platform’s response was more timely but still ineffectual.
    The New Yorker, 19 May 2022
  • After ineffectual attempts to offer aid, Adam flees the scene, leaving the other boy to die on the pavement.
    oregonlive, 1 Dec. 2020
  • The fact-finding commission became more and more ineffectual as the months dragged on.
    Krithika Varagur, Foreign Affairs, 20 Dec. 2022
  • The central bank’s efforts to cushion the blow might not be merely ineffectual.
    Washington Post, 30 Aug. 2019
  • The central bank's efforts to cushion the blow might not be merely ineffectual.
    Chris Isidore, CNN, 27 Aug. 2019
  • If the legal system is bypassed because it is seen as ineffectual, what will take its place?
    Douglas Perry, OregonLive.com, 18 Jan. 2018
  • Canada was awarded a penalty kick, Jessie Fleming converted it and a sense of doom fell over the ineffectual U.S. team.
    Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 Aug. 2021
  • Applying the same old tools to a very new situation, even though those tools have been proven ineffectual.
    Shirin Ghaffary, Recode, 21 Nov. 2018
  • So far, the official response has been ineffectual, and many Mongolians have begun to see it through a wider lens.
    Beth Gardiner, National Geographic, 26 Mar. 2019
  • The irony here checks out: Casaubon, not unlike so many of Franzen’s male characters, is self-righteous, pompous, largely ineffectual.
    Los Angeles Times, 30 Sep. 2021
  • In Jackson’s case, Lue pulled the veteran point guard after only 3 minutes and 21 seconds of ineffectual play in the first half.
    Andrew Greif, Los Angeles Times, 23 Dec. 2020
  • In the third period, Utah’s ball movement and multiple actions dried up, and the team settled for ineffectual tires from deep.
    Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 28 Apr. 2022
  • Now the playing field has spread into a far more subjective realm, where the rules are uncertain, the referees ineffectual, and whirl is king.
    Los Angeles Magazine, 19 Dec. 2017
  • But because of its own dysfunction—and, in no small measure, Israeli policies—the PA has become weak and ineffectual.
    Aaron David Miller, Foreign Affairs, 22 Dec. 2023
  • He’s first pictured silently brooding in his garden, and the overall impression of him is an amoral yet ineffectual leader, long past his prime.
    Nate Jones, Vulture, 1 Mar. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ineffectual.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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