futile

English

Etymology

From Middle French futile, from Latin fūtilis.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfjuː.taɪ.əl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfju.taɪ.əl/, /ˈfju.təl/
• Rhymes: -uːtəl (US)

Adjective

futile (comparative more futile, superlative most futile)

1. Incapable of producing results; useless; not successful; not worth attempting.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or […] . And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.

   • 1915, George A. Birmingham, “chapter I”, in Gossamer (Project Gutenberg; EBook #24394), London: Methuen & Co., published 8 January 2013 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 558189256:

     There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. […] Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.

   • 2011 December 15, Marc Higginson, “Shamrock Rovers 0-4 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport:

     Goals from Steven Pienaar, Andros Townsend, Jermain Defoe and Harry Kane sealed the win, but Rubin Kazan's 1-1 draw against PAOK Salonika rendered Spurs' efforts futile.

Synonyms

• ineffectual
• unavailing
• vain
• idle
• fruitless
• See also Wikisaurus:futile

Antonyms

• effectual
• effective

Related terms

• futility
• futilitarian

Translations

incapable of producing results

• Arabic: عَقِيم‎ (ʿaqīm)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: безполезен (bg) (bezpolezen), напразен (bg) (naprazen), безуспешен (bg) (bezuspešen)
• Burmese: အချည်းနှီးဖြစ်သော (a.hkyany:hni:hpracsau:), အလဟဿဖြစ်သော (a.la.ha.ssa.hpracsau:)
• Catalan: fútil
• Cherokee: ᎤᏚᎩᏄᏛᎾ (uduginudvna)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無用 (zh), 无用 (zh) (wúyòng), 枉然 (zh) (wǎngrán), 無益 (zh), 无益 (zh) (wúyì)

• Czech: jalový
• Danish: nytteløs (da)
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: nutteloos (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: nyttuleysur
• Finnish: turha (fi), tulokseton (fi), toivoton (fi); katteeton (fi) (of a promise)
• French: futile (fr)
• Galician: fútil
• Georgian: ფუჭი (puč̣i), ამაო (amao)
• German: sinnlos (de), vergeblich (de)
• Greek: μάταιος (el) (mátaios)
• Hindi: फ़ज़ूल (fazūl), अकारथ (hi) (akārath)
• Ido: vana (io)
• Italian: futile (it)

• Japanese: 無用 (むよう, muyō), 無駄 (ja) (むだ, muda), 無益 (むえき, mueki)
• Khmer: អសារ (km) (a’saa)
• Latin: futilis m, futilis f, futile n
• Maori: mūhore
• Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Navajo: chʼééh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: nytteløs, nyttelaus

  Nynorsk: nyttelaus

• Occitan: futil
• Persian: عبث‎ (fa), بى فايده‎, پوچ‎ (fa) (puč)
• Polish: daremny (pl) m
• Portuguese: fútil (pt)
• Russian: бесполе́зный (ru) (bespoléznyj), тще́тный (ru) (tščétnyj), беспло́дный (ru) (besplódnyj), напра́сный (ru) (naprásnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: dìomhain, faoin
• Slovak: márny (sk), zbytočný, nepatrný
• Spanish: inútil (es), fútil (es)
• Swedish: meningslös (sv), lönlös (sv), fåfäng (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can

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French

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin fūtilis.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

futile (plural futiles)

1. futile

Related terms

• futilité

Further reading

• “futile” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Italian

Adjective

futile (masculine and feminine plural futili)

1. futile

Related terms

• futilità

Anagrams

• fluite

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Latin

Adjective

fūtile

1. nominative neuter singular of fūtilis
2. accusative neuter singular of fūtilis
3. vocative neuter singular of fūtilis

References

• futile in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• futile in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “futile” in Félix Gaffiot’s Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette (1934)