Meaning & use
effete
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparabledisapproving
Overly refined and weak, lacking energy or the ability to achieve things.
Grammar: Usually critical: an effete society.
Patterns
- an effete aristocracy
The novel mocks an effete aristocracy that has forgotten how to work.
Critics called the regime effete and out of touch.
He dismissed the committee as an effete group of talkers.
adjectivecomparableliterary
Worn out and no longer able to produce results.
Grammar: Older, literary sense, applied to institutions, ideas or empires.
Patterns
- an effete tradition
The empire had grown effete after centuries of luxury.
The effete cause finally lost its supporters.
An effete old soil produced little.
adjectivecomparabledisapprovingoffensive
Describing a man seen as delicate or affected in manner, often as an insult.
Grammar: Often disapproving and can be offensive when aimed at men's appearance.
Patterns
- an effete manner
The writer was mocked as effete by his rivals.
Describing someone as effete is a way of insulting their manners.
Word forms
| comparative | more effete |
|---|---|
| superlative | most effete |
Common combinations
- effete aristocracy
- The play satirizes an effete aristocracy.
- effete elite
- He rails against the effete elite.
- effete society
- Writers warned of an effete society.
- effete intellectual
- They branded him an effete intellectual.
- decadent and effete
- The court was decadent and effete.
Synonyms and how they differ
- decadent
- Decadent suggests moral decline through luxury, while effete suggests lost strength.
- weak
- Weak is plain and general, while effete suggests weakness from excess refinement.
- enervated
- Enervated means drained of energy and is more about tiredness.
- precious
- Precious here means overly refined or affected, with less sense of lost power.
Opposites
Word family
- effeteness noun
- the state of being effete
- effetely adverb
- in an effete way
- feeble adjective
- lacking strength, a looser relative in meaning
Commonly confused: effete or effect? effete or elite?
effete vs effect
Effect is a result; effete is an adjective about weakness. They share the start of the spelling only.
effete vs elite
An elite is a privileged group; effete describes weakness, and the two are often combined in the insult effete elite.
Practice
The critic described the court as ______, more interested in fashion than in governing.
Choose one answer.
Effete means overly refined and lacking vigor, which fits a court obsessed with fashion. Austere means plain and strict, which is the opposite.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “effete”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.