Meaning & use
inefficient
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Meaning
adjectivenot comparable
Using more time, money, or energy than necessary for the result produced.
Grammar: Describes methods, systems, people, or use of resources; contrast with ineffective for failure of outcome.
Patterns
- inefficient process
- inefficient use of energy
- be inefficient at something
The old boiler is inefficient and raises fuel bills.
An inefficient meeting repeated points without deciding anything.
She is not lazy; the workflow around her is inefficient.
Common combinations
- inefficient system
- The audit exposed an inefficient system for approving invoices.
- woefully inefficient
- The booking site was woefully inefficient during peak hours.
- inefficient use of resources
- Printing every draft is an inefficient use of resources.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wasteful
- Wasteful emphasizes throwing away resources; inefficient emphasizes poor ratio between input and result.
- uneconomical
- Uneconomical is about cost versus benefit; inefficient can concern time or energy too.
- cumbersome
- Cumbersome stresses awkward slowness; inefficient stresses too much input for too little output.
Opposites
Word family
- inefficiency noun
- Waste of time, money, or energy in a process.
- inefficiently adverb
- In a way that wastes resources.
- efficient adjective
- Producing results with little waste.
Commonly confused: inefficient or ineffective?
inefficient vs ineffective
Inefficient wastes resources; ineffective fails to achieve the desired effect even if little is wasted.
Practice
Choose the best sentence.
Choose one answer.
Option 1 shows wasted input for the same output. Options 2 and 4 confuse inefficiency with success, and option 3 describes the opposite condition.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “inefficient”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.