Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use inefficiency in a sentence

20 example sentences · noun

Inefficiency means lack of efficiency or effectiveness. Example: “The inefficiency of many old-fashioned power plants exceeds 60% loss before the subsequent losses during transport over the grid.”

Examples of inefficiency by meaning

nounLack of efficiency or effectiveness.

  • Yet only 21 percent of adult TANF recipients are working today, largely because of these inefficiencies and loopholes.2024 September 23, Sam Adolphsen, Paige Terryberry, “WITH REFORM, TANF CAN LIFT AMERICAN FAMILIES OUT OF DEPENDENCY”, in Foundation for...
  • “His approach is going to increase inefficiency by creating an environment marked by instability, a lack of trust and divisiveness.”2025 February 27, Jeanne Sahadi, “DOGE’s heavy-handed approach is not likely to make the government more efficient”, in CNN

More sentences with inefficiency

  • The inefficiency of many old-fashioned power plants exceeds 60% loss before the subsequent losses during transport over the grid.From the entry loss
  • I will scrub the inefficiencies out of the system.From the entry scrub
  • The cyclegraph first created the problem of inefficiency by recording it and making it visible.2020, Florian Hoof, Angels of Efficiency: A Media History of Consulting, page 158. From the entry cyclegraph
  • This makes an adhocracy open not only to innovation, but also to corruption and inefficiency.1992, Richard Veryard, Information Modelling: Practical Guidance (BCS Practitioner Series), New York, N.Y.: Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 171. From the entry adhocrat
  • Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which administers TANF at the federal level, adds to the program’s inefficiencies.2024 September 23, Sam Adolphsen, Paige Terryberry, “WITH REFORM, TANF CAN LIFT AMERICAN FAMILIES OUT OF DEPENDENCY”, in Foundation for…. From the entry TANF
  • There are too many examples of corruption and inefficiency.2014 October 22, Graham Michael Barton, “Distribution”, in Show Me the Money: Where Did All the Aid and Money Go after Typhoon Yolanda in…. From the entry shambolic
  • Without this management, inefficiency soon becomes embedded into the project (and practice), which enjoys few or no standards.2013, Cliff Moser, Architecture 3.0: The Disruptive Design Practice Handbook, Abingdon Oxon.; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 138. From the entry adhocratic
  • Excess capacities for some modes and system inefficiencies, to some extent, for all modes continue to pose major concerns.1978, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Analysis of DOT Near-term Transportation Research…. From the entry transmodal
  • As a result, the fund may realize few if any of diversity’s benefits, while still suffering from the inefficiencies often caused by intrateam strife.2007 October 7, Mark Hulbert, “At Some Funds, a Gender Communication Gap”, in New York Times. From the entry intrateam
  • Are there some inefficiencies in that?2001, Bankruptcy Court Decisions (volume 38, page A-7). From the entry skinny
  • But as a resident colleague amid the undeniably irritating deprivations, inefficiencies, and desuetudes of Great Musters, he frankly left something to be desired.1959, J[ohn] I[nnes] M[ackintosh] Stewart, “Poor Chowder”, in The Man Who Wrote Detective Stories: And Other Stories, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry desuetude
  • Advanced burlesque, even, wouldn't have him for a house manager; why should the very real business of photodrama tolerate his turtleish inefficiency?1915 November, ““CLOSE-UPS””, in Photoplay Magazine, volume 8, number 6, page 51. From the entry turtleish
  • It was, most likely, just a spontaneous - and often subconscious - protest against the officially cultivated gigantomania, which in reality was but an excuse for shortages and inefficiency.2025 November 26, Vitali Vitaliev, “Small is beautiful”, in RAIL, number 1049, page 68. From the entry gigantomania
  • Misvaluation contributes to market inefficiencies: the winning bidder may not be the one with the greatest synergy, and the purchase price paid may exceed the target's true value.2021, Donald DePamphilis, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Restructuring Activities, page 10. From the entry misvaluation
  • He demanded that people be imprisoned right and left for inefficiency, and then wondered why they were afraid to take decisions and referred them higher up whenever they could.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford…. From the entry demand
  • Those who are afraid to unstrangle the judge, and allow him to comment on the facts, contribute more than all others to the inefficiency of the jury today.1946, Maynard E. Pirsig, Cases and Materials on Judicial Administration, page 389. From the entry unstrangle
  • His views were echoed by The Economist, which feared that the effects of modernisation would be no more than “chromium-plated” inefficiency caused by unimaginative railway management and adverse union reaction.2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43. From the entry echo
  • His views were echoed by The Economist, which feared that the effects of modernisation would be no more than "chromium-plated" inefficiency caused by unimaginative railway management and adverse union reaction.2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43. From the entry unimaginative

Meaning of inefficiency

  1. noun Lack of efficiency or effectiveness.

Full definition of inefficiency

Questions about inefficiency in a sentence

How do you use inefficiency in a sentence?
Inefficiency is used as a noun. For example: “The inefficiency of many old-fashioned power plants exceeds 60% loss before the subsequent losses during transport over the grid.”
What is a short sentence with inefficiency?
“Are there some inefficiencies in that?”
What does inefficiency mean?
Inefficiency means lack of efficiency or effectiveness.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: inefficiency (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use inefficiency in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/inefficiency. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.