futility
The quality of being futile or uselessThe quality of being futile or useless.
» Tom was overcome with a sense of futility.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
3 senses(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
(countable, usually)Something, especially an act, that is futile.
(uncountable, usually)Unimportance.
- uselessness as a consequence of having no practical result
Examples
2 sentencesTom was overcome with a sense of futility.
This is the worst snowstorm to hit England in 18 years. And for some the journey into work became an exercise in futility.
Translations
7 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Latin fūtilitās (“worthlessness, futility”). By surface analysis, futile + -ity.From Latin fūtilitās (“worthlessness, futility”). By surface analysis, futile + -ity.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: futilities| Singular | futility |
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| Plural | futilities |
regular
Word family
2 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.