as in worthless
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Recent Examples of nonproductive
Course of trade in the oil industry often leaves the public on the hook for nonproductive well cleanup costs, including capping.
—
Andrew Leahey, Forbes, 7 Jan. 2025
Buoyed by the early promise of its Dravet therapeutic, the company developed a second drug candidate, STK-002, that similarly targets splicing to turn nonproductive gene transcripts into constructive ones.
—Elie Dolgin, Discover Magazine, 26 Apr. 2023
But will this calculation include all the opportunity cost of the expenditure of nonproductive effort?
—WSJ, 16 Aug. 2022
Remove all twiggy, dead or nonproductive growth.
—oregonlive, 8 Mar. 2022
In this framework, nonproductive bodies and ways of living become illegitimate in some way.
—John Patrick Leary, The New Republic, 6 Aug. 2021
Andrew Leahey, Forbes, 7 Jan. 2025
Buoyed by the early promise of its Dravet therapeutic, the company developed a second drug candidate, STK-002, that similarly targets splicing to turn nonproductive gene transcripts into constructive ones.
—Elie Dolgin, Discover Magazine, 26 Apr. 2023
But will this calculation include all the opportunity cost of the expenditure of nonproductive effort?
—WSJ, 16 Aug. 2022
Remove all twiggy, dead or nonproductive growth.
—oregonlive, 8 Mar. 2022
In this framework, nonproductive bodies and ways of living become illegitimate in some way.
—John Patrick Leary, The New Republic, 6 Aug. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nonproductive
Adjective
-
They are also known to trick miners into quarrying worthless ore, following veins of what appears to be copper or silver, but when smelted, is found to be without value or, worse, poisonous.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Oct. 2025
-
Should the stock rise, the option expires worthless, and the investor keeps the premium.—
Michael Khouw,
CNBC,
27 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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But for now, building extremely capable AI models is incredibly expensive—and, at the moment, incredibly unprofitable.—
Matteo Wong,
The Atlantic,
22 Oct. 2025
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There's also a lot of selling in unprofitable, speculative stocks.—
Jeff Marks,
CNBC,
22 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Play can look silly or unproductive — that's the point.—
Cas Holman,
CNBC,
21 Oct. 2025
-
An undisciplined, unproductive outing against the Jets in London at least momentarily provided reason to hit the pause button.—
Parker Gabriel,
Denver Post,
17 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The Mellon family foundation did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment, and attempts by the Times to reach Mellon were unsuccessful.—
Nino Paoli,
Fortune,
25 Oct. 2025
-
The two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful.—
Shane Connuck,
Charlotte Observer,
25 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Fresh walls and old trims can be a pointless exercise, as shabby trims will attract attention for all the wrong reasons.—
Sophie Flaxman,
Better Homes & Gardens,
20 Oct. 2025
-
The majority of their group, including Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle, were held pointless.—
Julian McKenzie,
New York Times,
12 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Sarah has a useless husband and a useless job.—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
29 Oct. 2025
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Lavin bought hard copies of the AI knockoffs of her book, and wasn’t surprised to find that each was useless in its own way.—
CT Jones,
Rolling Stone,
27 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Even as Nintendo has endlessly mined its classic consoles for nostalgic re-releases in recent decades, the company has seemed to completely ignore the existence of the Virtual Boy—its abortive 1990s dip into the world of early virtual reality.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
12 Sep. 2025
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Our main girl, Diva, is a diva down, forced into abortive encounters with the A.I. that stands, literally, between the goods and services supportive of her everyday life.—
Lauren Michele Jackson,
New Yorker,
23 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
The position advanced by the states is legally unavailing as a matter of longstanding and well-established law.—
WSJ,
WSJ,
25 July 2018
-
Efforts to aid him with lifeboats, three of which were ineffectually trying to breast the heavy sea, were unavailing, while a lifeline, held by a number of rescuers, was carried far out into the surf by a number of swimmers.—
sandiegouniontribune.com,
sandiegouniontribune.com,
6 May 2018
Cite this Entry
“Nonproductive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nonproductive. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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