efficacy

in a sentence

Let us examine the points in which it [a republic] varies from pure democracy, and we shall comprehend both the nature of the cure and the efficacy which it must derive from the Union.  (source) James Madison, Federalist Paper #10, 1788

But questions about the painlessness and efficacy of lethal injection were emerging.†  (source) Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy, 2014

In the Organlnc brochures and promotional materials, glossy and discreetly worded, stress was laid on the efficacy and comparative health benefits of the pigoon procedure.†  (source) Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 2003

He gave the facts with flat efficacy.†  (source) Dan Brown, Angels & Demons, 2000

Supposing this person, wearied at the inefficacy of the poison, should, as Monte Cristo intimated, have recourse to steel!†  (source) Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo, 1846

In psychology this belief is called self-efficacy.†  (source) Howard E. Wasdin & Stephen Templin, I Am a Seal Team Six Warrior, 2012

"Without expecting any thanks, or anything of the sort," resumed Camilla, "I have remained in that state, hours and hours, and Raymond is a witness of the extent to which I have choked, and what the total inefficacy of ginger has been, and I have been heard at the piano-forte tuner's across the street, where the poor mistaken children have even supposed it to be pigeons cooing at a distance,—and now to be told—" Here Camilla put her hand to her throat, and began to be quite chemical as to the formation of new combinations there.†  (source) Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, 1861

There was relief all around, but soon the thread had been overtaken by a multi-participant debate about the efficacy of that war, U.S. foreign policy in general, whether or not we won in Vietnam or Grenada or even WWI, and the ability of the Afghans to self-govern, and the opium trade financing the insurgents, and the possibility of legalization of any and all illicit drugs in America and Europe.†  (source) Dave Eggers, The Circle, 2013

This censorial body, therefore, proves at the same time, by its researches, the existence of the disease, and by its example, the inefficacy of the remedy.†  (source) James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, & John Jay, The Federalist Papers, 1788

That's the kind of fatalism and pessimism typical of a repressive feudal system, where peasants have no reason to believe in the efficacy of their own work.†  (source) Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, 2008

To the People of the State of New York: AFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America.†  (source) James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, & John Jay, The Federalist Papers, 1788

Rather, her manner of naming tells us a great deal about the society that would lead a man, Pilate's father, to have absolute faith in the efficacy of a book he cannot read, so much so that he is guided by a principle of blind selection.†  (source) Thomas C. Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, 2003

With evening quickly approaching, an intense discussion began regarding the efficacy of immediate pursuit or holding off until daybreak.†  (source) William P. Young, The Shack, 2007