futile

CEFRC1

/ˈfjuː.taɪl/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
adjective
Unable to produce a useful result.
02
adjective
Extra detail
Insignificant; frivolous.

Examples

It isn't futile to go to university.
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 3
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Also pronounced

[ˈfju.ɾəl]
/ˈfju.təl/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meaning

Incapable of producing results, useless; doomed not to be successful; not worth attempting.

More examples

In context

Your efforts are futile.
He seemed hitherto to have been living by proxy, in a vision, in reflection—to have been an echo, a shadow, a futile attempt;[…]
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.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After hours of trying, he realized his efforts were blank because the door would not open.

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Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

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
No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. 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; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46
There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.[…]Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. 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

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Origin

adjective

Borrowed from Middle French futile, from Latin fūtilis.

Deep Dive

adjective

More examples

Related

Quick test

After hours of trying, he realized his efforts were blank— because the door would not open.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

After hours of trying, he realized his efforts were blank because the door would not open.