fruitless

CEFRC1

/ˈfɹuːtləs/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Producing no useful result or success.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Of a person: unable to have children; barren, infertile.

Examples

  • That is enough. I have had it with fruitless conversation.

  • It's fruitless to press him further.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈfɹutləs/
  • /ˈfɹʉːtləs/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Unproductive, useless.

  2. Bearing no fruit; barren.

  3. Of a diet, etc.: without fruit.

More examples

In context

  • Let's stop this fruitless discussion.

  • The fruitless woman desperately wanted to have children.

  • The unskilled man’s attempt at fixing his car engine was fruitless.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Despite hours of searching, the effort was blank and they found nothing.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

Inherited from Middle English fruytles; equivalent to fruit + -less. Compare Middle English withouten fruyt (“fruitless”, literally “without fruit”).