Ineffective means not producing the result wanted. An ineffective treatment, largely ineffective, ineffective leadership.
It judges the outcome and says nothing about effort, which is what makes it such a cold word in a report. Note inefficient, which is a different charge: an ineffective method fails, and an inefficient one works while wasting resources. Something can be effective and inefficient at once.
1adjectiveineffectiveNot producing the result wanted.
“The old medicine proved ineffective, so the doctor tried something stronger.”
ineffective is a quality of failure.
French
effectif
English
effective
English, today
ineffective
Built from
From in- + effective. effective comes from French effectif. From French effectif, from Latin effectīvus (“productive; effective”), from efficiō (“to make; to bring about”), equivalent to effect + -ive.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA