feckless

adjective

feck·​less ˈfek-ləs 

1

: weak, ineffective

She can't rely on her feckless son.

2

: worthless, irresponsible

… a feckless maneuver that could only serve to strengthen the enemy …

—Simon Schama

fecklessly adverb

fecklessness noun

Did you know?

A feckless person is lacking in feck. And what, you may ask, is feck? In Scots—our source of feckless—feck means "majority" or "effect." The term is ultimately an alteration of the Middle English effect. So something without feck is without effect, i.e., ineffective. In the past, feckful (meaning "efficient, effective," "sturdy," or "powerful") made an occasional appearance, but in this case, the weak has outlived the strong: feckless is a commonly used English word, but feckful has proven, well, feckless.

Synonyms of feckless

• unsuccessful
• inefficient
• ineffectual
• counterproductive

Examples of feckless in a Sentence

She can't rely on her feckless son.

a well-intentioned but feckless response to the rise in school violence

Recent Examples on the Web

But this sleekly miserable noir about the aftermath of a feckless man’s confrontation with his wife’s younger lover transports the stuff of archetype into Putin’s Russia. — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 14 Sep. 2026

James Patrick Donleavy, 20, and Gainor Steven Crist, a feckless charmer from Dayton, Ohio, were out of the Navy. — Literary Hub, 3 Sep. 2026

Middle ground = nobody knows because the owner is a feckless twit. — Jonathan Jones, New York Times, 19 Aug. 2026

In Martin’s view, there was something too rushed and pat about how the assassination had been pinned on a feckless young (supposed) Marxist who was then (rather conveniently) shot dead on national television. — Jessica Winter, New Yorker, 6 Aug. 2026

Word History

Etymology

from Scots, earlier fectles "valueless, futile," from fek, fect (later feck) "value, efficacy" (aphetic form of effect effect entry 1) + -les -less

First Known Use

circa 1585, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for feckless

• necklace
• reckless

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