Futility Meaning
/fjuːˈtɪlɪti/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounThe quality of being futile or useless.
nounSomething, especially an act, that is futile.
Sentence Examples
Tom was overcome with a sense of futility.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He finally understood the ____ of arguing with someone who refused to listen.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The soldiers began to feel the ____ of their mission as the conflict dragged on without any resolution.
Word Origin & History
From Latin fūtilitās (“worthlessness, futility”). By surface analysis, futile + -ity.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"“Has my dad come?” he asked.
“You can see he hasn’t,” said Mrs. Morel, cross with the futility of the question."
— 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter IV, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
"But fashion and authority apart, and bringing Plato to the test of reason, take from him, his sophisms, futilities, and incomprehensibilities, and what remains?"
— 1803, Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson:
"No man oppresses thee, can bid thee fetch or carry, come or go, without reason shewn. […] No man, wiser, unwiser, can make thee come or go: but thy own futilities, bewilderments, thy false appetites for Money, Windsor Georges and such like?"
— 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “chapter XIII, Democracy”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker):
"An excessive solicitude to shield those others from one's own trials and hardships, to preserve the exact quality of the revelation, for example, had been the fruitful cause of crippling errors, spiritual tyrannies, dogmatisms, dissensions, and futilities."
— 1917, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The Soul of a Bishop:
"But men will chatter and you and I will still shout our futilities to each other across the stage until the last silly curtain falls plump! upon our bobbing heads."
— 1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book I (The Romantic Egotist), page 171:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
He finally understood the ____ of arguing with someone who refused to listen.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The soldiers began to feel the ____ of their mission as the conflict dragged on without any resolution.