inefficient

See also: inefficiënt

English

Etymology

in- +‎ efficient

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌɪn.ɪˈfɪʃ.ənt/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Rhymes: -ɪʃənt

Adjective

inefficient (comparative more inefficient, superlative most inefficient)

Not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired; inefficacious
Celery is an inefficient food.
Incapable of, or indisposed to, effective action; habitually slack or unproductive; effecting little or nothing
- 1987, Ronald Reagan, Presidential Radio Address January 17, 1987
  The Defense Department, for example, has greatly expanded competitive bidding and is this year submitting to Congress the first-ever 2-year defense budget to replace the old, inefficient, year-by-year process.
inefficient workers
an inefficient administrator
Jessica was terribly inefficient at cleaning, so her brother usually had to clean the whole room.

Antonyms

efficient

Translations

not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired

Bulgarian: безрезултатен (bg) (bezrezultaten), безполезен (bg) (bezpolezen)
Czech: neefektivní
Finnish: tehoton
French: inefficace (fr)
Irish: neamhéifeachtúil
Italian: inefficiente (it), inadeguato (it), inefficace (it)
Polish: niewydajny, niewydolny
Romanian: neeficient (ro), ineficient (ro)
Spanish: ineficiente, ineficaz
Swedish: ineffektiv (sv)
Turkish: verimsiz (tr)

incapable of, or indisposed to, effective action

Bulgarian: неспособен (bg) (nesposoben), некадърен (bg) (nekadǎren)
Czech: neschopný (cs)
Finnish: saamaton (fi), aikaansaamaton
Ido: nekapabla (io)
Italian: a scartamento ridotto
Swedish: improduktiv (sv), verkningslös (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

German: ^{(please verify)} ineffizient (de)
Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 无结果 (wú jié guǒ)

Noun

inefficient (plural inefficients)

A person who cannot or does not work efficiently.
- 1889, New York (State). Dept. of Labor. Bureau of Statistics, Annual Report (part 2, page 127)
  Two men were put to work who could not set their looms; a third man was taken on who helped the inefficients to set the looms. The other weavers thought this was a breach of their union rules and 18 of them struck […]
- 1903, Jack London, The People of the Abyss Chapter 17
  A general shaking up of the workers from top to bottom would result; and when equilibrium had been restored, the number of the inefficients at the bottom of the Abyss would have been increased by hundreds of thousands.