effeteness

noun

1
as in effeminacy

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2
as in tenderness

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Dissimilar Words

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
  • While the eye of the camera presents Cathy’s childhood as objective fact, Lee describes and then reframes his understanding of the past as an adult character in scenes Hoon Lee performs with astounding tenderness and pain.
    — Kathryn VanArendonk, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Rage and tenderness are interwoven in pieces about mothers and daughters; the X’s with which Native leaders signed the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie; and the necessity and fragility of art.
    — Craig Morgan Teicher, Literary Hub, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of tenderness
Noun
  • There’s a certain softness to Peter’s eyes and a hardness in Telemachus’s brow.
    — Harmon Siegel, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Heritage dressing took on a more subversive edge, mixing preppy and equestrian references with grunge, while pale pastels brought softness to the season.
    — Samantha Conti, Footwear News, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of softness
Noun
  • In the diaries, Pavese casts his impotence into a kind of worldview.
    — Max Norman, Harpers Magazine, 22 Sep. 2026
  • According to reports, Brinkley would inject slivers of Billy goat gonads into human scrotums as a cure for impotence.
    — Richard Wagoner, Daily News, 7 Sep. 2026
Definition of impotence
Noun
  • Could Kleist’s conjecture provide a key to their seeming vacancy, their resignation, their helplessness, suggesting that in their benighted condition lies spiritual perfection?
    — Matthew McLean, Artforum, 22 Sep. 2026
  • There are also horrifying incidents of helplessness and despair, as well as touching examples of hope, faith and redemption.
    — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 20 Sep. 2026
Definition of helplessness
Noun
  • New characters are introduced, many interesting details are offered, yet the narration never loses its focus, every sentence adding to the characters’ mounting sense of powerlessness in the face of such a tragic death.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Sep. 2026
  • This atmosphere of collective powerlessness offers one explanation for the conspiratorial thinking at the heart of Lamar versus Drake.
    — Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 14 Sep. 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 5 Oct. 2026.

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