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ineffectuality

ineffectuality

1 9.1
A lack of ability to make plans or actions produce the wanted result
  • noun
  • /ˌɪnɪˈfɛkʧuˌælɪti/
translation icon : inefectualidad
  • The committee's ineffectuality led to wasted resources and no real progress on the project.

Examples

  • Albert was one of Johnson's men at the convention; he understood the demonstration was an affront to the president, but as a very small man wielding a big gavel to no effect whatever, he looked the essence of ineffectuality.

    Blog text (25)
  • Party leader Haim Oron's purported lack of charisma was duly noted, but so was the ineffectuality of the campaign's message, which had focused on an economic platform of "social responsibility."

    Academic text (2011)
  • Can one imagine a more telling admission than this of the business community's ineffectuality in dealing with the human rights problem?

    Academic text (1995)
  • The tally was $4,100 for a few letters and phone calls that amounted to little more than a record of my lawyer's ineffectuality.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Further, the 2008 Mumbai attack, which penetrated the heart of India, was a particularly embarrassing episode; the failure to prevent it and the feeble response to it demonstrated the ineffectuality of India's security forces.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Who has not listened to the endless media commentary that belabors the unpopularity and ineffectuality of Bush, never hearing a mention of the even dimmer public opinion of Congress, and certainly never the fact that the majority of people prefer the company of used car salesmen to that of journalists?

    Blog text (29)
  • Considering rhetoric speech only, Lawrence N. Danson suggests that "the paradoxical ineffectuality of the play's rhetoric" -- the stately set speeches unintegrated into the dramatic action -- represents the problem both characters and playwright must face: how to break out of rhetoric and achieve the proper tragic action.

    Academic text (2000)
  • His complaints about the ineffectuality of the new policy were echoed by several members of the team.

  • The ineffectuality of the proposed solutions frustrated the employees who were seeking real change.

Synonyms

ineffectiveness
vsineffectuality
6 5.4

Not able to produce the result you want

is the same idea but expressed with a different term
inefficacy
vsineffectuality
1 8.7

Unable to produce the wanted result

is the same concept but uses an alternate word form
inefficaciousness
vsineffectuality
9.9

The state of not producing the intended result

is the same meaning but uses a different word form
ineffectualness
vsineffectuality
8.4

A lack of ability to make something have the result you want

is the same meaning but differs only by word formation
unproductiveness
vsineffectuality
7.1

Not doing much useful work or making progress

focuses on inability to cause a specific desired effect rather than general output

Antonyms

140 3.5

The ability to make something work as planned

efficacy
  • Formal
41 7.4

The ability to produce the wanted result

How Effective

success
1.0
effectiveness
140 3.5
ineffectuality
1 9.1
uselessness
6 4.3

Surface Forms

Morphology

ineffectuality = ineffectual (semi-transparent) = in + effect + ual + ity

The noun is a standard and readily interpretable -ity formation from the adjective 'ineffectual'.

Etymology

The word ineffectuality starts with in- meaning 'not' and has effect meaning 'result', the same part you see in effective. So ineffectuality is the state of 'not producing the desired result', which explains why it means a lack of effectiveness.