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Futile

Worthless; unproductive; unsuccessful

adjective

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Imagine This

The farmer tried to make his farmland fertile by laying a layer of chicken manure on top of it, but it was blown away by the wind. The farmer’s attempt was unsuccessful.

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Sounds Like

FYOO-tyl

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Looks Like

Fertile

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Remember This

A constructor is very sad because he has only a few tiles left to finish his half-done project. It's worthless!

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Other Forms

Futilelyadverb

Futilitynoun

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Connect With

ineffectual, unproductive, fruitless, useless, vain

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Note

Futile often collocates with 'to' or 'in' followed by an infinitive (e.g., 'futile to try') and is frequently used in the phrase 'futile effort' or 'futile attempt'. It is easy to confuse with 'fruitful' (meaning productive); remember that futile means not producing useful results.

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Study Deeper

Examples

The engineers concluded that redesigning the bridge would be futile given the deteriorated foundations.
Despite years of searching, the scholars' efforts to locate the artifact proved futile.

Synonyms

uselessvainineffectualfruitlessbootless

Antonyms

effectiveproductivesuccessfulfruitful

Etymology

From Latin futilis 'useless' (from fut- 'pouring away') via French or directly into English; the root relates to pouring out or wasting resources, hence worthless.

Mnemonic

Mnemonic: Fuel To No End. Think of futile as effort that has fuel but goes on without producing any end result.