Effete

Definition: Effete

Effete

Adjective

1. Marked by excessive self-indulgence and moral decay; "a decadent life of excessive money and no sense of responsibility"; "a group of effete self-professed intellectuals".

Date "effete" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1790. (references)

Etymology: Effete \Ef*fete"\, adjective. [Latin expression effetus that has brought forth, exhausted; ex fetus that has brought forth. See Fetus.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonym: Effete

Synonym: decadent (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Age	Adjective: aged; old; elderly, geriatric, senile; matronly, anile; in years; ripe, mellow, run to seed, declining, waning, past one's prime; gray, gray-headed; hoar, hoary; venerable, time-worn, antiquated, passe, effete, decrepit, superannuated; advanced in life, advanced in years; stricken in years; wrinkled, marked withthe crow's foot; having one foot in the grave; doting; (imbecile); like the last of pea time.
Deterioration	Decayed; Verb: moth-eaten, worm-eaten; mildewed, rusty, moldy, spotted, seedy, time-worn, moss-grown; discolored; effete, wasted, crumbling, moldering, rotten, cankered, blighted, tainted; depraved; (vicious); decrepid, decrepit; broke, busted, broken, out of commission, hors de combat, out of action, broken down; done, done for, done up; worn out, used up, finished; beyond saving, fit for the dust hole, fit for the wastepaper basket, past work; (useless).
Inutility	Vain, empty, inane; gainless, profitless, fruitless; unserviceable, unprofitable; ill-spent; unproductive; hors de combat; effete, past work; (impaired); obsolete; (old); fit for the dust hole; good for nothing; of no earthly use; not worth having, not worth powder and shot; leading to no end, uncalled for; unnecessary, unneeded.
Uncleanness	Decayed, moldy, musty, mildewed, rusty, moth-eaten, mucid, rancid, weak, bad, gone bad, etercoral, lentiginous, touched, fusty, effete, reasty, rotten, corrupt, tainted, high, flyblown, maggoty; putrid, putrefactive, putrescent, putrefied; saprogenic, saprogenous; purulent, carious, peccant; fecal, feculent; stercoraceous, excrementitious; scurfy, scurvy, impetiginous; gory, bloody; rotting; Verb: rotten as a pear, rotten as cheese.
Weakness	Languid, poor, infirm; faint, faintish; sickly; (disease); dull, slack, evanid, spent, short-winded, effete; weather-beaten; decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low, pulled down, the worse for wear.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Effete

English words defined with "effete": decadent. (references)

Specialty definitions using "effete": alligator ♦ carrier cell. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	The Effete Conspiracy, and Other Crimes by the Press (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Effete Coquette (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Vice President Spiro T. Agnew	A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Walden	Thoreau, Henry David	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.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	ALLIGATOR, n. The crocodile of America, superior in every detail to the crocodile of the effete monarchies of the Old World. Herodotus says the Indus is, with one exception, the only river that produces crocodiles, but they appear to have gone West and grown up with the other rivers. From the notches on his back the alligator is called a sawrian.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Effete" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Effete" is used about 39 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	39	55,036

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "effete"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		shterp (barren, desert, dry, sterile), i shteruar, i rrënuar (decrepit, desolate, dilapidated, disreputable, goner, impoverished, lost, ramshackle, tumble down, tumbledown, up the spout), i dobësuar (diluted, emaciated, emasculate, exhausted, flagging, rundown, sapless). (various references)

Arabic		‏واهن (atonal, atonic, crazy, doddery, enervate, feeble, flagging, impotent, infirm, invalidity, lackadaisical, languid, languorous, lower, nerveless, powerless, prostrate, rusty, shrivelled, sickly, sluggish, spiritless, stunted, tender, weak, weakling, weakly, wimp), ‏عقيم (barren, fruitless, futile, ineffectual, sterile, unfruitful, unproductiveness, useless, vain, void), ‏عاجز (decrepit, disabled, feckless, helpless, incapable, incompetent, ineffective, inert, infirm, invalid, paralysed, paralyzed, poor, powerless, unable). (various references)

Bulgarian		стерилен (aseptic, sterile), упадъчен (decadent, retrogressive), хилав (feeble, frail, puny, sickly, weakly), вече безплоден, негоден (disabled, disqualified, incompetent, ineligible, moth-eaten, no good, outworn, played out, punk, sour, unequal, unfit, unqualified, unsuitable, waste), изчерпан (out of print, played out, used up), изтощен (all in, bushed, down and out, emaciated, enervate, exhausted, gaunt, jaded, limp, perished, played out, prostrate, run down, screwy, shagged out, shot, sick, spent, used up, weary, whacked). (various references)

Czech		zmìkèilý, vyèerpaný (bushed, exhausted, fatigued, finished, gone, impoverished, spent, stale, washed out, worn out), slabošský (feckless, flabby), dekadentní, degenerovaný. (various references)

Farsi		فرسوده (Old, Rusty, Timeworn), نیروی خودراازدست داده (Spent), ازکارافتاده (Lameduck, Obsolete, Sear, Seedy). (various references)

French		mou, affaibli. (various references)

German		erschöpft (exhausted, exhausts, impoverished, jaded, outworn, overwrought, pinched, prostrate, spent, worn out), entkräftet (devitalizes, effetely, enfeebles, rebuts). (various references)

Greek		στείροσ (barren, sterile), εξαντλημένοσ (exhausted). (various references)

Hebrew		מ� וון (degenerated), חלוש (exhausted, feeble, frail, infirm, soft, weakly). (various references)

Hungarian		terméketlen (barren, dry, fruitless, hungry, infertile, jejune, lean, non-productive, sterile, unfruitful, unproductive), kimerült (all in, beaten, beat-up, dead beat, deadbeat, done, drained, exhausted, forworn, impoverished, overwrought, played out, prostrate, spent, tired, to be maxed out, to be zonked out, to feel run down, washed up, weary, worn-out), elerőtlenedett (enervate). (various references)

Indonesian		usang (out of date, worn out), lemah (enervate, foible, puny, thin, weak). (various references)

Italian		esaurito (out of print, spent), sorpassato (outdated, outmoded), logoro (exhausted, jaded, lure, outworn, ragged, ruined, shabby, threadbare, well worn, worn, worn out). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		惰弱 (effeminate, enervated). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		� じゃく (coward, cowardly, effeminate, enervated, weak). (various references)

Pig Latin		effeteay.(various references)

Portuguese		exausto (blown, bushed, dead beat, done, exhausted, faint, impoverished children, jaded, outworn, overwrought, player, run-down, spent, whacked), estéril (abortive, barren, brood, close-fisted, fruitless, futile, gangue, germfree, hard set, hungry, impoverished, infertile, jejune, lean, matrix, penurious, poor, sterile, ungrateful, unproductive, useless, vain), efervescente (ebullient, fizzy), gasto (consumption, cost, exhauster, expenditure, impoverished, jag, offscourings, old, out, outgo, seedy, shabby, spent, threadbare, trite, underwrite all expenses, untrue, waste, wasting, wear), caduco (caducous, decayed, deciduous, decrepit, dilapidated, expiry, fugacious, impoverished, lapsed, lapsus, rickety). (various references)

Romanian		epuizat (exhausted, jaded, out of print, out of stock, outworn, prostrate, worn out), uzat (cast off, decrepit, jaded, mangy, napless, obsolete, outworn, peeled, seedy, shabby, spent, used, well worn, worn out), slãbit (flabby, helpless, loose, low, queer, weakened), inutil (addle, beside the purpose, bootless, excrescent, fruitless, idle, nugatory, pathetic, pathetically, superfluous, unavailing, unfruitful, unnecessary, unprofitable, useless, uselessly, vain, wasteful, worthless), incapabil (feckless, impotent, incapable, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficient, insufficient, shiftless, unable, unapt, unequal, unfit), decadent (decadent). (various references)

Russian		истощенный (cachectic, emaciated, exhausted, impoverished, sapless, spent). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		dekadentan (decadent). (various references)

Spanish		lánguido (dopey, dopy, lackadaisical, languid, languorous, limp, listless, quaggy), decadente (decadent, declining), cansado (chapfallen, deadbeat, dog-sick, doleful, impotent, jaded, outworn, tired, tiresome, weary), agotado (beaten, bleary, bushed, depletive, distressful, distressing, drained, draining, exhausted, gruel, jaded, outsold, overwrought, played out, shot, sold out, spent, tired, tired out, unavailable, warn out, washed out, washed up, whacked, worn out). (various references)

Swedish		kraftlös (enervated, feeble, forceless, impotent, impuissant, ineffectual, limp, milky, pithless, powerless, week), dekadent (decadent). (various references)

Thai		เสื่อมถอย, อ่อนแอ (droop, enfeebled, epicene, namby-pamby, rickety, silly). (various references)

Turkish		eskimiş (dated, decrepit, detrited, moss-grown, obsolescent, old, out, outworn, rusty, shiny, stale, superannuated, timeworn, well worn, worm-eaten, worn, worn out), yorgun (all in, all out, bushed, done, drawn, forworn, jaded, languorous, off, pooped, pooped out, run down, spent, stale, tired, toilworn, tuckered out, used up, wan, washed out, weary, whacked, worn, worn out, worn to a frazzle), köhne (fossil, fusty, musty, old, ramshackle, ratty, rickety, tumbledown, worn), kısır (abortive, barren, fruitless, infertile, sterile, unfruitful), bitkin (all in, all out, beat, broken down, bushed, dead beat, dog tired, drained, drawn, drawn out, drooping, exhausted, faint, forworn, haggard, jaded, knackered, languorous, overdone, played out, pooped, pooped out, prostrate, run down, spent, stale, tired, tired to death, toilworn, tuckered out, used up, washed out, weakly, weary, whacked, wonky, worn, worn out, worn to a frazzle, wretched, zonked). (various references)

Ukranian		виснажений (all in, atrophic, atrophous, attenuate, attenuated, barren, beat, bedrid, cachectic, crocked, emaciate, emaciated, exhausted, hidebound, impoverished, jaded, outspent, outworn, overcome, overdriven, overworn, perished, played out, sapless, spent, wan, washed out, washed up, weariful, whipped-up, worn, worn out), зніжений (effeminate, girlish, ladylike, sardanapalian), знесилений (all out, bleeding, careworn, drooping, far gone, harassed, overcome), занепаднецький (sick), безплідний (abortive, arid, barren, heartless, hungry, nonbearing, otiose, sterile). (various references)

Vietnamese		mòn mỏi suy yếu, kiệt sức (adynamic, crocky, down, forspent, prostrate, toil-worn), bất lực hết thời. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "effete": effetely, effeteness, effetenesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Effete" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: afete, Deffett, efato, efeat, efee, efeet, efet, efete, efette, effate, effeat, effecteg, effectum, effed, effet, effets, effette, effi, effiet, effite, effore, efite, Fekete, Neffati. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "effete" (pronounced efē"t)
3	-f ē" t	defeat, feat, feet.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-e-e-f-f-t"
	-2 letters: feet, fete, teff.
	-3 letters: eff, eft, fee, fet, tee.
	-4 letters: ef, et.
	Words containing the letters "e-e-e-f-f-t"
	+2 letters: effected, effecter, efferent, effetely, etouffee, forefeet.
	+3 letters: effecters, effective, efferents, etouffees.
	+4 letters: effacement, effectives, effectuate, effeminate, efferently, effeteness.
	+5 letters: aftereffect, effacements, effectively, effectuated, effectuates, effeminates, enfeoffment, ineffective, whiffletree.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.