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
-
The energy department said wind and solar capacity is 'worthless' without sunlight or wind.—
Sharon Goldman,
Fortune,
9 Sep. 2025
-
Overnight, many of those owners saw their wealth erased — their principal assets rendered worthless.—
Max Klaver,
Miami Herald,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Instead, the fund invested in risky assets that were unprofitable, had very little return on investment, and carried a large amount of debt, said the news release.—
Tony Saavedra,
Oc Register,
10 Sep. 2025
-
Despite significant revenue growth, the company continues to be unprofitable, losing approximately $90 million each year.—
Trefis Team,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The key lies in understanding the difference between unproductive friction (the logistical hurdles that bog students down) and productive friction (the cognitive struggle that is essential for building real knowledge and skills).—
Dave Tucker,
Forbes.com,
15 Sep. 2025
-
Pick one seemingly unproductive attention-training activity and practice it consistently.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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While Hadden-Paton was unsuccessful in keeping his dapper suit, his costar, Hugh Bonneville, who plays Lord Grantham, confessed to Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan on Live!—
Meredith Wilshere,
PEOPLE,
14 Sep. 2025
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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reached out for comment but was unsuccessful.—
Natalie Eilbert,
jsonline.com,
14 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Trouble has obviously been brewing in Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its continuation of a pointless war defined by the Russian regime’s willingness to engage in war crimes.—
Steven Greenhut,
Oc Register,
12 Sep. 2025
-
Spending valuable hours on pointless revenue.—
Jodie Cook,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Digital fingerprinting collates an array of data from your phone — your IP address, device model and OS, time zone, setup and anything else if can get — to create a unique identifier in aggregate, even if each individual data snippet us useless on its own.—
Zak Doffman,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
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Never mind that large language models have so far proven useless at 95% of the companies that have made their workforces try to use them, researchers from MIT recently found.—
Allison Morrow,
CNN Money,
10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Garbowit recalls that there were only around sixteen members of Congress lined up behind Thanedor’s abortive resolution—so the fact that Green’s follow-up motion garnered seventy-nine supporters in the caucus is a sign of progress.—
Chris Lehmann,
Harpers Magazine,
20 Aug. 2025
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On the one hand, as Tevye is fond of saying, the story unfolds in a hardscrabble shtetl in the Ukrainian plains in the months leading up to the Russian Empire’s abortive 1905 revolution.—
David Lyman,
The Enquirer,
25 July 2025
Adjective
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The position advanced by the states is legally unavailing as a matter of longstanding and well-established law.—
WSJ,
WSJ,
25 July 2018
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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 16 Sep. 2025.
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