Meaning

3 senses
  1. (uncountable, usually)The quality of being futile or useless.

    an exercise of futility

    His taking the bar exam for a third time was pure futility.

    Sinnlosigkeit, Vergeblichkeit, Zwecklosigkeit

    тще́тностьtščétnostʹ, бесполе́зностьbespoléznostʹ

  2. (countable, usually)Something, especially an act, that is futile.

  3. (uncountable, usually)Unimportance.

More definitions
  • uselessness as a consequence of having no practical result

Examples

2 sentences
  1. Tom was overcome with a sense of futility.

  2. This is the worst snowstorm to hit England in 18 years. And for some the journey into work became an exercise in futility.

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Translations

7 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
quality of being futile:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
quality of being futile:

Origin

From Latin fūtilitās (“worthlessness, futility”). By surface analysis, futile + -ity.

From Latin fūtilitās (“worthlessness, futility”). By surface analysis, futile + -ity.

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Forms

plural: futilities
Singularfutility
Pluralfutilities

regular

Word family

2 related words
Relatedfutile

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
futility — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto