effeteness

noun

1
as in effeminacy

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2
as in tenderness

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for effeteness
  1. effeminacy
  2. tenderness
  3. softness
  4. impotence
  5. helplessness
  6. powerlessness
  7. invalidism
  8. defenselessness
Noun
  • This horror at effeminacy echoes across Baldwin’s novels and essays.
    — Garth Greenwell, Harpers Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025
  • The researchers theorized this could be in part because of greater stigma toward effeminacy in boys than masculinity in girls.
    — Benjamin Ryan, NBC News, 4 Oct. 2023
Definition of effeminacy
Noun
  • Above all, Chapa 100 is a tribute to those who continue moving forward with tenderness and grace despite hardship.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 13 Aug. 2026
  • His tenderness and vulnerability sets the tone of the show, which takes men’s emotions seriouslywithout lapsing into either the preachy hugging and learning of Ted Lasso or the manipulative melodramatics of, say, A Million Little Pieces.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of tenderness
Noun
  • The Better Body Pillow balances plush softness with genuine support.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 15 Aug. 2026
  • The lightweight formula delivers airy lift at the roots without sacrificing softness.
    — Iman Balagam, Vogue, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of softness
Noun
  • This prescient issue is buried in a recent, must-read Free Press article by Niall Ferguson and John-Clark Levin that laments the growing impotence of the old-fashioned historian in the face of bots and algorithmic amplifications.
    — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 26 July 2026
  • The Iran and Gaza wars have thrown that absence and European strategic impotence into sharp relief.
    — Galip Dalay, Time, 7 July 2026
Definition of impotence
Noun
  • Picture the anger and helplessness of watching that person bleed out through a video on your phone.
    — Stephania Taladrid, New Yorker, 13 Aug. 2026
  • At this moment, complete inertia, helplessness, or escape seemed to be the only ways to react, but Zionism offered a strategy for coping with the changing circumstances, a strategy that had begun with Theodor Herzl.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of helplessness
Noun
  • This sense of powerlessness, too, is a genuine aspect of a poet’s reality.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 June 2026
  • As far as going through life’s grand stages is concerned, this has been a double-whammy of pain and powerlessness.
    — Eric Koreen, New York Times, 21 June 2026
Definition of powerlessness
Noun
  • Since the 1970s, feminist scholars have been actively documenting the ways menstruation has been used to ground false arguments about women’s weakness, invalidism, and inferiority in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 11 Mar. 2026
  • As Eliot went through a crisis involving his turn to Christianity, Vivien’s invalidism, and his mother’s death, his letters got more and more intense and confessional.
    — Christopher Tayler, Harper’s Magazine , 17 Aug. 2022
Definition of invalidism
Noun
  • The fragile defenselessness of the proud has proven mesmerizing.
    — Lo Patrick, PEOPLE, 14 July 2026
Definition of defenselessness
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.

Browse Nearby Words

effete
effeteness
efficacious
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Cite this Entry

“Effeteness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/effeteness. Accessed 17 Aug. 2026.

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