HOW TO PRONOUNCE
effete
/ɪˈfit/
Press play to hear how to pronounce effete.
American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
Watch on YouTube ↗
Watch on YouTube ↗
What does effete mean?
adjective
- Lacking strength or vitality; feeble, powerless, impotent.
- Decadent, weak through self-indulgence.
- Affected, overrefined.
More meanings (1)
adjective
- (obsolete) exhausted, spent, worn-out.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ɪˈfit/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
Clammy, suffocating heat, fever-dealing swamps, decaying towns, with an effete population and a huge rainfall, do not constitute an attractive whole.
The immediate derivation of the word is feto, "I breed," whence also effetus, "having brought forth young, worn out by bearing, effete."
More book examples (3)
Reflect, then, upon the amount of friction that must be perpetually going on in the human organism owing to the retention of effete matter!
My auxiliaries are the dews and rains which water this dry soil, and what fertility is in the soil itself, which for the most part is lean and effete.
To increase the amount of oxygen and ozone in the system and thereby to promote the oxidation and combustion of effete matter.