Futility

//fjuːˈtɪlɪti// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The quality of being futile or useless. uncountable, usually

    "an exercise of futility"

  2. 2
    uselessness as a consequence of having no practical result wordnet
  3. 3
    Something, especially an act, that is futile. countable, usually

    "But fashion and authority apart, and bringing Plato to the test of reason, take from him, his sophisms, futilities, and incomprehensibilities, and what remains?"

  4. 4
    Unimportance. uncountable, usually

    "Her empty chatter, her futility, her childish coquetry and frivolity—such light wares could hardly be the whole substance of any woman’s being; […]"

Synonyms

All synonyms
absurdityaimlessnessbankruptcybig dealblank futurebleak outlook

Example

More examples

"The proof of the futility of harsh drug laws is this: in the country that has come down the hardest on drugs and drug users, spending billions of dollars in a decades-long war on drugs, there have never been so many drug addicts."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

exercise in futility

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.