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as in feminine
of or relating to a man who has or displays qualities traditionally considered more suitable for women wore a slightly more effete style of clothing in those days

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of effete This is bad enough, but then there’s the wide gulf of sensibility that separates Rock and Martin; the latter’s effete irony just doesn’t gel with Rock’s political trenchancy. Bill Wyman, Vulture, 28 Feb. 2025 The Portnoy in the pizza videos often has a preening, fussy, almost effete quality that complicates his butch self-image. Willy Staley, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025 This is bad enough, but then there’s the wide gulf of sensibility that separates Rock and Martin; the latter’s effete irony just doesn’t gel with Rock’s political trenchancy. Bill Wyman, Vulture, 28 Feb. 2025 The Portnoy in the pizza videos often has a preening, fussy, almost effete quality that complicates his butch self-image. Willy Staley, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for effete
Recent Examples of Synonyms for effete
Adjective
  • In a guest role that’s been extremely well hidden in the months leading up to the premiere, Bradley Cooper turns heel as Elijah Gemstone, a degenerate con man who sees right through Abel Grieves’s lucrative scam before plugging him in the forehead.
    Scott Tobias, Vulture, 9 Mar. 2025
  • In theory, the walls of carbon nanotubes house a sea of degenerate electrons that have a similar density to metals.
    The Physics arXiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 14 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Precious metals and mining stocks were weak across both markets.
    Brendan Ahern, Forbes.com, 9 July 2025
  • But Democrats see Earle-Sears as a far weaker candidate than Youngkin, operating a worse environment for the GOP.
    David Weigel, semafor.com, 8 July 2025
Adjective
  • The royal paired the jacket with a flowing pleated midi skirt, offering a balance between structured and feminine, and nude pointed-toe pumps.
    Renan Botelho, Footwear News, 12 July 2025
  • And beyond the viral jokes littering Palmer’s comments are thousands of seemingly serious comments calling her video just an example of how leaning into feminine roles can be self care.
    CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 11 July 2025
Adjective
  • Mahler, a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine, takes on the end of a decadent era with an eye to analyzing the conditions that laid the groundwork for 45’s rise.
    Literary Hub July 1, Literary Hub, 1 July 2025
  • The cold foam put a decadent spin on the subtly tangy sip.
    Erin Clements, People.com, 30 June 2025
Adjective
  • Joe Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate performance, when the nation witnessed a hoarse and feeble president losing his train of thought and struggling to finish sentences, ended his re-election campaign.
    Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA Today, 8 July 2025
  • Their feeble efforts fall flat, because the physical historical record dictates otherwise.
    Daily Southtown, Chicago Tribune, 4 July 2025
Adjective
  • These attempts to reshape the narrative around China’s actions go way beyond cultural soft power.
    Isabelle Mayault, The Dial, 8 July 2025
  • Queen Camilla styled an Anna Valentine emerald green midi dress with three-quarter-length sleeves, a rounded neckline and slightly flared skirt with soft pleats.
    Julia Teti, Footwear News, 8 July 2025
Adjective
  • So in a move that no one had approved, Wayans put on an effeminate voice for the character in hopes Executive Producer Lorne Michaels would be angry.
    Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 17 Jan. 2025
  • In both sketches, Keaton plays an effeminate man who doesn’t quite understand the assignment.
    Rosa Escandon, Forbes, 20 Oct. 2024
Adjective
  • In Benediction, Terence Davies had to split Siegfried Sassoon into two (Jack Lowden, Peter Capaldi) to create a comparably complex personality, but Scott’s Adam is all the more moving for being less refined, a performance of sustained fragility and unmanly truth.
    Armond White, National Review, 29 Dec. 2023
  • Why is his governess, Mrs. Brock, fired for encouraging Richard’s unmanly interest in poetry and music?
    Francine Prose, The New York Review of Books, 22 Nov. 2018

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Cite this Entry

“Effete.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/effete. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.

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