as in unsuccessful
not producing the desired result
a well-intentioned but feckless response to the rise in school violence
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Recent Examples of feckless
Kelly, clearly, will keep standing up to these feckless attempts at coercion.
—
Chris Brennan, USA Today, 8 Jan. 2026
The implication was that the woke media wants to protect criminal immigrants and feckless liberal politicians, most notably Walz, who supposedly let all this take place.
—Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2026
Blaine is not quite as feckless, but Sherman has an ace in the hole in Garfield, who agrees to endorse him in a speech.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 6 Nov. 2025
Their corrupt and incompetent government and feckless international institutions have been totally unable to protect them.
—Newsweek Contributors, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for feckless
Chris Brennan, USA Today, 8 Jan. 2026
The implication was that the woke media wants to protect criminal immigrants and feckless liberal politicians, most notably Walz, who supposedly let all this take place.
—Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2026
Blaine is not quite as feckless, but Sherman has an ace in the hole in Garfield, who agrees to endorse him in a speech.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 6 Nov. 2025
Their corrupt and incompetent government and feckless international institutions have been totally unable to protect them.
—Newsweek Contributors, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for feckless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for feckless
Adjective
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An attempt to get a comment from Scrooge Sul about the allegations was unsuccessful.—
Jesse Sarles,
CBS News,
27 Mar. 2026
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The man had surgical hardware in his right ankle but attempts to identify him from the serial numbers were unsuccessful, according to the medical examiner’s office.—
Frederick Melo,
Twin Cities,
26 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Additionally, in a typical year, 17 million gallons of gas are spilled due to the inefficient manner the fuel is conveyed.—
Chris Hildreth,
The Orlando Sentinel,
26 Mar. 2026
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With the help of Ware’s positive minutes, the Heat survived an inefficient shooting night from Adebayo.—
Anthony Chiang,
Miami Herald,
26 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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However, those clauses have proved largely ineffectual, according to Conklin.—
Kate Nishimura,
Sourcing Journal,
25 Mar. 2026
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An evil global cabal, an ineffectual justice system, the exercise of unchecked power by untrustworthy experts—these are familiar themes.—
Joshua Rothman,
New Yorker,
24 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The leaks also led to major changes at Meta and in the tech industry, which began to weed out research that could be viewed as counterproductive for the companies.—
Jonathan Vanian,
CNBC,
29 Mar. 2026
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These structured habits—doing the same thing in the same place at the same time of day—were more likely to lead to long-term success than attempting to squelch counterproductive impulses in the moment.—
Francine Russo,
Scientific American,
28 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Feckless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/feckless. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.
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