futile
/ˈfjuː.taɪl/US/ˈfju.taɪl/
futile adjective: incapable of producing results, useless; doomed not to be successful; not worth attempting.
Adjective
futile (comparative more futile, superlative most futile)
- Incapable of producing results, useless; doomed not to be successful; not worth attempting.
- But Bathsheba, though she could feel, was not much given to futile dreaming, and her musings under this head were short and entirely confined to the times when Troy’s neglect was more than ordinarily evident.1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC
- He seemed hitherto to have been living by proxy, in a vision, in reflection—to have been an echo, a shadow, a futile attempt;[…]1879, Henry James, chapter XXI, in Confidence, London: Chatto & Windus
- Insignificant; frivolous.
- Of its history little is recorded, and that little futile.1853, John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, volume II (The Sea-Stories), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 120
- This idiosyncrasy is brought out by social pressure, while in a state of nature it might have betrayed itself only in trivial and futile ways, as it does among barbarians.1905, George Santayana, Reason in Common Sense (The Life of Reason), volume 1
futile meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
futile in Hindi
- incapable of producing results
- फ़ज़ूल fazūl, अकारथ akārath
futile in Tamil
- எண்மையான, சிறுமையான, பயனற்ற, விளைவற்ற, வீணான
futile in Urdu
- عبث, بیکار, سبک
futile in Bengali
- futile, failed, ineffective
- অকৃত okrito
- futile, unfulfilled
- অসিদ্ধ ośiddho
- futile, vain, useless
- মিথ্যা mittha
More languagesFewer languages
- futile in Malayalam
- പാഴ് pāḻŭ
- futile in Kannada
- ವ್ಯರ್ಥವಾದ, ನಿರರ್ಥಕ, ಕೆಲಸಕ್ಕೆ ಬಾರದ, ದಂಡ
- futile in Arabic
- عَقِيم ʕaqīm
- futile in Malay
- sia-sia
- futile in Persian
- عبث, بی فایده, پوچ puč
- futile in Thai
- เปล่าประโยชน์
- futile in Vietnamese
- vô dụng, vô ích
- futile in Myanmar
- အချည်းနှီးဖြစ်သေ a.hkyany:hni:hpracse, အလဟဿဖြစ်သော a.la.ha.ssa.hpracsau:
Examples of futile in a sentence
- And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
- Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:
- He wished he had not been saddled with Whippham's rather futile son as his chaplain.1917, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The Soul of a Bishop:
- Goals from Steven Pienaar, Andros Townsend, Jermain Defoe and Harry Kane sealed the win, but Rubin Kazan's 1-1 draw against PAOK Salonika rendered Spurs' efforts futile.2011 December 15, Marc Higginson, “Shamrock Rovers 0-4 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport:
Synonyms of futile
13 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of futile
| comparative | more futile |
|---|---|
| superlative | most futile |
Origin of futile
Borrowed from Middle French futile, from Latin fūtilis.
Words formed from futile
Questions about futile
- What does futile mean?
- Futile means incapable of producing results, useless; doomed not to be successful; not worth attempting.
- What is futile in Hindi?
- Futile in Hindi is फ़ज़ूल (fazūl), अकारथ (akārath). See Futile meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use futile in a sentence?
- And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.
- What part of speech is futile?
- Futile is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce futile?
- Futile is pronounced /ˈfjuː.taɪl/ (UK).
Words near futile in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: futile (page history and authors); futile (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); futile (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অকৃত (Bengali) (page history and authors); പാഴ് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); futile (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-futile.wav.
Cite this entry: “futile.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/futile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.