useless

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /ˈju.sləs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

useless (comparative more useless, superlative most useless)

1. Without use or possibility to be used.

   This fork has prongs that are bent. It's useless now.

2. Unhelpful, not useful; pointless (of an action).

   I think it's useless to keep this discussion going. It's like talking to a wall.

   I tried my best to make him quit smoking, but my efforts were useless. He now smokes six packs a day.

3. (pejorative): (of a person) good-for-nothing; not dependable.

   Bill never mows the lawn, takes out the trash or anything. He's useless, but I love him anyways.

4. (colloquial): (of a person) unable to do well at a particular task or thing. Useless is mildly insulting.

   My brother is useless at most computer games, but he is an awesome PS2 player.

   Why do you keep trying? You're obviously useless at it.

Synonyms

• (good-for-nothing): good-for-nothing
• (unable to do well): unskillful

Antonyms

• skillful, useful

Derived terms

• uselessly
• uselessness

Translations

without use

Basque: baliogabe, ezgai, hutsal Bulgarian: безполезен (bg) (bezpolézen) Catalan: inútil (ca) m. and f. Chinese: Mandarin: 無用 (zh), 无用 (zh) (wúyòng) Czech: zbytečný m., k ničemu Danish: ubrugelig (da) Dutch: nutteloos (nl), onbruikbaar (nl) Estonian: tarbetu (et) Finnish: hyödytön (fi), tarpeeton (fi), kelvoton (fi), turha (fi) French: inutile (fr) German: nutzlos (de), unnützlich (de) Hawaiian: waiwai ʻole, makehewa, ʻole wale Hindi: बेकार (hi) (bekār) Icelandic: gagnslaus (is) Ido: neutila Interlingua: inusabile (ia)

Irish: gan mhaith Italian: inutile (it) m. and f. Japanese: 無用な (ja) (むような, muyō-na) Kurdish: بێ سوود, بێ که‌ڵک Latin: inutilis Norwegian: nytteløst (no), unyttig (no) Pitjantjatjara: kura, uṉa Polish: niepotrzebny m., bezużyteczny m. Portuguese: inútil (pt) Romanian: inutil (ro) m. and n., netrebuincios (ro) m. and n., nefolositor (ro) m. and n. Russian: бесполезный (ru) (bespoléznyj), ненужный (ru) (nenúžnyj), (good-for-nothing) никчёмный (ru) (nikčómnyj) Scottish Gaelic: gun fheum (gd) Slovak: zbytočný (sk) m., nanič (sk), (vulg.) nahovno (sk) Spanish: inútil (es) m. and f. Urdu: بیکار (ur) (bekār)

unable to do well

Catalan: inútil (ca) m. and f. Chinese: Cantonese: 冇鬼用 Kurdish: بێ که‌ڵک, هیچوپوچ Norwegian: ubrukelig (no)

Russian: бесполезный (ru) (bespoléznyj), (good-for-nothing) никчёмный (ru) (nikčómnyj) Scottish Gaelic: gun fheum (gd) Spanish: inútil (es) m. and f., bueno para nada m., buena para nada f.