How to Use effortful in a Sentence

effortful

adjective
  • The clowning might be a little too effortful.
    — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2026
  • But both make love feel like work — constant, effortful and never quite finished.
    — Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 23 May 2026
  • Igor’s eyes were cloudy, and his chest rattled with effortful breathing.
    — Brandon Taylor, The Atlantic, 4 Jan. 2025
  • The film’s chief sin is its effortful posture of compassion for the plight of these boys, and those like them in the real world.
    — Richard Lawson, IndieWire, 5 Sep. 2025
  • The more difficult or effortful something is, the less likely people are to do that.
    — Roger Dooley, Forbes, 10 May 2021
  • That’s for the story to unfold, which is done with effective if sometimes effortful care over the next two hours.
    — Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 1 May 2020
  • Any of these types of fatigue tends to magnify how effortful tasks feel, Pychyl says.
    — Sarah Digiulio, Good Housekeeping, 5 June 2021
  • Antigone’’ is not, and Page’s effortful struggles appeared to throw Vital off her game.
    — Don Aucoin, BostonGlobe.com, 28 Mar. 2018
  • Greg, the awkward cousin attached to a billionaire media-mogul clan, is a creature of effortful mimicry.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 15 Oct. 2019
  • For the first time since van den Brand began her experiments, the rat moved one of its back legs on its own—a small, effortful step.
    — Ferris Jabr, Scientific American, 31 May 2012
  • The film is a mess, opaque in its argument and tiring in its effortful weirdness, and yet in its best moments has a hypnotic pull.
    — Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Now came the surprise of my effortful steps, the shock of how unyielding the dress’s shell was, as if I were being held in place by a firm hand.
    — Han Ong, New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2026
  • What a transformation that would’ve been, of the effortful, unchanging days.
    — Nell Freudenberger, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
  • The whole thing is effortful, with a potential for embarrassment.
    — Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 25 Dec. 2023
  • This is a significantly less effortful experience if a shopper has more than a few items.
    — Roger Dooley, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024
  • But those who take pleasure in the effortful attention required by some puzzles and games to keep up and not get lost will find this book a rewarding challenge.
    — Kathleen Rooney, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2018
  • But flanked by a dozen or so time-lapse cloud sequences, Maras and his cast strain toward a kind of biblical grandeur their painfully effortful film can’t reach.
    — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 26 May 2026
  • But doing so always feels subtly effortful, like speaking a fluent but not native second language.
    — Alex Hutchinson, Outside Online, 28 May 2022
  • Setting Robards aside, which isn’t easy, Hanks’ turn is valiant but effortful and is the film’s one casting misstep.
    — Michael Phillips, Detroit Free Press, 11 Jan. 2018
  • Hilary Swank’s turn as the crafty FBI agent on the gang’s trail is effortful rather than effortless.
    — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 17 Aug. 2017
  • But researchers still don’t fully understand why some people value effortful options more than others do.
    — Piotr Winkielman, The Conversation, 4 Apr. 2025
  • Thinking, on its own, is surprisingly effortful and even a little bit boring, and people will do almost anything to avoid it.
    — Matthew Baldwin, The Conversation, 30 Mar. 2022
  • Their sound unrefined and their performance effortful, these singers were compelling in a way professionals couldn’t be.
    — New York Times, 1 July 2022
  • Yet there still isn’t enough story here, just a premise that doesn’t develop simply by being illustrated in broad, effortful fashion.
    — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 1 Oct. 2021
  • By comparison, the crispy-fish dish, which resembles a hornet’s nest that’s been battered and fried, is effortful and ungainly.
    — The New Yorker, 8 Oct. 2021
  • Babies attentively watch those around them, and use that information to guide their own effortful behavior.
    — Julia Leonard, Smithsonian, 25 Sep. 2017
  • Sometimes, stars on SNL are born of effortful attention-seeking.
    — Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 16 Feb. 2025
  • Greer Grimsley’s resonant bass-baritone was here faded and effortful, and not always easy to follow.
    — New York Times, 3 Apr. 2022
  • Maiworm is the conscience of the play, ready to defend her incremental, effortful, impossible work, even when she’s challenged on it.
    — Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2022
  • But to the director Emma Miller’s credit, that bout is a long, real-time slog up and down the piste, effortful and tough, and a little ugly.
    — Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'effortful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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