How to Use effete in a Sentence

effete

adjective
  • Once again, there are the effete snobs and the salt-of-the-earth people who tolerate them.
    — TIME, 9 Oct. 2023
  • Haynes is an effete pop-nerd who imitates pop-culture precedents.
    — Armond White, National Review, 15 Oct. 2021
  • The guns were symbols of outdoorsmanship, both rugged and effete.
    — Washington Post, 12 Apr. 2022
  • Even effete artists have to track inventory and control labor costs.
    — Michael Taylor, ExpressNews.com, 12 June 2020
  • Republicans have sought to cast him as an effete extremist.
    — Aidan McLaughlin, Vanity Fair, 29 May 2026
  • Zimmer is an effete, hapless bozo, which lets Mr Carell put pathos and need front and centre.
    — The Economist, 25 June 2020
  • On the surface, a Pittman painting might seem to conjure effete mannerism.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 Sep. 2019
  • Perfetti gives him an effete contemporaneity, but the character needs new lines more than a new look.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 7 Nov. 2023
  • So at least Belichick has experience overcoming an effete ground game.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 31 Oct. 2019
  • What we’re left with is an effete description that exists for itself and doesn’t illuminate the character.
    — Hannah Gold, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2025
  • If Chuck in South Orange wants his red meat, then who are those effete Times editors to serve him veggie wraps?
    — Will Oremus, Slate Magazine, 14 Apr. 2017
  • As the effete mentor to Wayne in the film's first half, Neeson nicely toys with the audience without tipping his hand.
    — Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 17 Feb. 2023
  • If anything it was meant to signal a reminder that to me the best indie pop is not introspective, cardigan-clad and effete but loud, unhinged and vital.
    — Natalie Weiner, Billboard, 14 July 2017
  • Viewed from the south, San Francisco is a pretentious and prettified crackerbox of a city, foggy and filled with a bunch of weirdos and effete snobs.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2021
  • The Portnoy in the pizza videos often has a preening, fussy, almost effete quality that complicates his butch self-image.
    — Willy Staley, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025
  • The Nero meme leaves the impression of an effete dilettante, confident in his own genius only because nobody had the guts to tell him otherwise.
    — Gaia Squarci, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Sep. 2020
  • The early part of the film, filled with Elliott’s effete insults, simpering and whining, doesn’t establish an endearing mood.
    — oregonlive, 27 Mar. 2020
  • The once-nerdy kid has become a blue-collar first responder just like grandfather Martin, and has nothing in common with his snobbish, effete father.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 9 Oct. 2023
  • The political orientations remain the same each time, which seems a bit trite—the effete lib having his soymobile rescued by some diesel-guzzling alpha.
    — Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper’s Magazine , 17 Aug. 2022
  • Scarf critics accuse the accessory—and by extension, its wearers—of being effete or affected.
    — Eric Twardzik, Robb Report, 1 Dec. 2025
  • Francis is portrayed as snippy and effete, but his politics are more uncompromising than Bernie Sanders’.
    — Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2021
  • Benjamin Pelteson plays Isaac, the art curator as sophisticated to the point of effete.
    — Joanne Ostrow, The Know, 11 Apr. 2017
  • For you effete coastal residents who are unfamiliar with the delights of flyover country, DQ means Dairy Queen.
    — George Will, Twin Cities, 20 Oct. 2019
  • For you effete coastal residents who are unfamiliar with the delights of flyover country, DQ means Dairy Queen.
    — George F. Will, The Denver Post, 19 Oct. 2019
  • Usually interpreted as a mannerism of effete tea-drinkers, the pointed pinky is actually a threat aimed at gays, who were forced to wear pink triangles by the Nazis.
    — James Lileks, National Review, 19 Dec. 2019
  • There, Janetti often pokes fun at the royals, and developed a persona for his version of Prince George—a sassy, effete royal commentator.
    — Annie Goldsmith, Town & Country, 3 Aug. 2021
  • The American right believes in an all-powerful security state that doesn’t let effete concerns about civil liberties get in the way of serving justice and protecting the homeland.
    — Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, 1 Mar. 2018
  • The former investment banker is attacked both by Le Pen and his critics to the left as an effete figure ruling for the rich, disconnected from the concerns of ordinary French workers.
    — Washington Post, 7 Apr. 2022
  • Cutaways to bits involving sad-sack local cop Maccarico (Marco Bonadei) interviewing kooky characters like an effete server (Milutin Dapcevic) at Taco King and Oreste getting a dressing down from his ex-wife, Arabella’s Mother (Margareth Made), just feel like mildly amusing filler.
    — Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 28 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'effete.' 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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