inefficient
/ˌɪn.ɪˈfɪʃ.ənt/adjective, noun
inefficient is spelled I-N-E-F-F-I-C-I-E-N-T. The wrong spelling people search most is unefficient: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 22 of all searches for the word. Inefficient is an adjective meaning “Not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired; inefficacious”.
How many letters and syllables are in inefficient?
| Letters | 11: I-N-E-F-F-I-C-I-E-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.9 times per million words; the 15,798th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, unefficient, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell inefficient?
Inefficient is spelled I-N-E-F-F-I-C-I-E-N-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 22 of the searches for inefficient in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is inefficient?
Inefficient appears 2.9 times per million words in written English, the 15,798th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce inefficient?
- /ˌɪn.ɪˈfɪʃ.ənt/
Inefficient has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-inefficient.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of inefficient
- more inefficient comparative
- most inefficient superlative
- inefficients plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does inefficient mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired; inefficacious.
Celery is an inefficient food.
- 2
Incapable of, or indisposed to, effective action; habitually slack or unproductive; effecting little or nothing.
inefficient workers
noun
- 1
A person who cannot or does not work efficiently.
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 […]
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Inefficient in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | inefficace |
| Portuguese | ineficiente |
| Spanish | ineficiente, ineficaz |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does inefficient come from?
From in- + efficient.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).