How to Use ineffectual in a Sentence

ineffectual

adjective
  • But amid the ineffectual chaos, there is now a push for order.
    — New York Times, 29 Dec. 2021
  • An odd shifting of scale is present in the oversized head and the tiny ineffectual hand.
    — Dallas News, 23 June 2022
  • 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
  • Any attempts to change that process may be ineffectual or result in even worse outcomes.
    — Shoeb Javed, Forbes, 4 Oct. 2024
  • Weak, ineffectual, riddled by inflation, and a work force that won't go back to work.
    — ABC News, 12 Dec. 2021
  • 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
  • If the legal system is bypassed because it is seen as ineffectual, what will take its place?
    — Douglas Perry, OregonLive.com, 18 Jan. 2018
  • So does this mean that the writerly anti-Trump right is ineffectual?
    — E.j. Dionne Jr., The Mercury News, 1 June 2017
  • The men in their lives are bumbling, terrible or just ineffectual.
    — Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 1 Apr. 2025
  • The fact-finding commission became more and more ineffectual as the months dragged on.
    — Krithika Varagur, Foreign Affairs, 20 Dec. 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
  • The demand to slow aging—through mostly ineffectual pills, serums or creams--is real.
    — Andrea Gawrylewski, Scientific American, 8 July 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
  • The cops of wherever this is are ineffectual.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2026
  • The central bank's efforts to cushion the blow might not be merely ineffectual.
    — Chris Isidore, CNN, 27 Aug. 2019
  • The central bank’s efforts to cushion the blow might not be merely ineffectual.
    — Washington Post, 30 Aug. 2019
  • 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
  • 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
  • Don’t waste the power of a good rage on ineffectual outbursts at other people who just happen to be nearby.
    — Jennifer Culp, Them, 11 Oct. 2024
  • 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
  • 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
  • But none of this means that the court, or the quest for international justice more broadly, is ineffectual.
    — Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 27 Nov. 2024
  • Sounds like something Logan Roy would say to his ineffectual sons in the middle of a hostile takeover.
    — Zoe Guy, Vulture, 30 Apr. 2024
  • Perón died a year later and was succeeded by his third wife, the ineffectual Isabel Perón.
    — Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Dec. 2024
  • 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
  • After ineffectual attempts to offer aid, Adam flees the scene, leaving the other boy to die on the pavement.
    — oregonlive, 1 Dec. 2020
  • There is a father in Breaking Away, a flustered, ineffectual father who sells used cars for a living.
    — Literary Hub, 4 Nov. 2025
  • The lawyer, Martin Roth, cited his client's ineffectual defense, his mental health and his age.
    — Greg Allen, NPR, 4 Feb. 2026
  • 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
  • David Arquette, cast as good-natured if ineffectual deputy Dewey, met Courteney Cox at the first read.
    — Jordan Runtagh, People.com, 1 Nov. 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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