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
-
Another recurring feature of the biggest asset booms is outright chicanery, such as fraudulent accounting, the marketing of worthless securities, and plain old stealing.—
John Cassidy,
New Yorker,
13 Oct. 2025
-
Marks drew a parallel to the late 1990s internet boom, which promised to transform the world — and ultimately did — yet left a trail of worthless companies in its wake.—
Yun Li,
CNBC,
13 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The company is currently unprofitable.—
Jordan Blum,
Fortune,
16 Oct. 2025
-
The zombie companies made Japan’s economy less efficient and slower-growing, and left generations of Japanese working at unprofitable businesses.—
Allison Schrager,
Mercury News,
16 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
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
-
Very cold temperatures, heavy snow or ice, pests, and diseases can leave you with damaged or unproductive plants the next year.—
Lauren Landers,
Better Homes & Gardens,
8 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Romo was starting to describe how Mahomes was complaining about the attempt being unsuccessful when he was interrupted by the Chiefs running the ball and picking up the first down.—
Jayna Bardahl,
New York Times,
19 Oct. 2025
-
However, the shooting was unsuccessful and Alex suffered only superficial wounds.—
Samantha Stutsman,
PEOPLE,
18 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
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
-
Miles are useless for trying to define how enormous our galaxy is.—
Mike Lynch,
Twin Cities,
12 Oct. 2025
-
Advertisement One Battle After Another, Eddington, and The Mastermind all comedically register white men as useless political collaborators.—
Robert Daniels,
Time,
10 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
-
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 21 Oct. 2025.
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