futile

English

Etymology

From Middle French futile, from Latin fūtilis. Related with god through Indo-European.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfjuː.taɪl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfju.taɪl/, /ˈfju.taɪ.əl/, /ˈfju.təl/
• Homophone: feudal (some US accents)
• Rhymes: -uːtəl (US)

Adjective

futile (comparative more futile, superlative most futile)

1. Incapable of producing results, useless; doomed not to be successful; not worth attempting.
   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC:

     But Bathsheba, though she could feel, was not much given to futile dreaming, and her musings under this head were short and entirely confined to the times when Troy’s neglect was more than ordinarily evident.

   • 1879, Henry James, chapter XXI, in Confidence, London: Chatto & Windus:

     He seemed hitherto to have been living by proxy, in a vision, in reflection—to have been an echo, a shadow, a futile attempt; […]

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:

     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, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1917, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The Soul of a Bishop‎^[1]:

     He wished he had not been saddled with Whippham's rather futile son as his chaplain.

   • 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.

2. Insignificant; frivolous.
   • 1853, John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, volume II (The Sea-Stories), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 120:

     Of its history little is recorded, and that little futile.

   • 1905, George Santayana, Reason in Common Sense (The Life of Reason)‎^[2], volume 1:

     This idiosyncrasy is brought out by social pressure, while in a state of nature it might have betrayed itself only in trivial and futile ways, as it does among barbarians.

Synonyms

• useless, see also Thesaurus:futile

Antonyms

• effectual
• effective
• fruitful

Related terms

• futilely
• futility
• futilitarian

Translations

incapable of producing results

• Arabic: عَقِيم (ʕaqīm)
• Armenian: իզուր (hy) (izur), զուր (hy) (zur), ապարդյուն (hy) (apardyun)
• Belarusian: бескары́сны (be) (bjeskarýsny), дарэ́мны (be) (darémny)
• Bulgarian: безполе́зен (bg) (bezpolézen), напра́зен (bg) (naprázen), безуспе́шен (bg) (bezuspéšen)
• Burmese: အချည်းနှီးဖြစ်သေ (a.hkyany:hni:hpracse), အလဟဿဖြစ်သော (a.la.ha.ssa.hpracsau:)
• Catalan: fútil (ca)
• Cherokee: ᎤᏚᎩᏄᏛᎾ (uduginudvna)
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: jalový (cs)
• Danish: nytteløs (da)
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: nutteloos (nl), tevergeefs (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: kasutu, tulutu
• Faroese: nyttuleysur
• Finnish: turha (fi), tulokseton (fi), toivoton (fi); katteeton (fi) (of a promise)
• French: futile (fr)
• Galician: fútil (gl)
• Georgian: ფუჭი (puč̣i), ამაო (amao)
• German: sinnlos (de), vergeblich (de)
• Gothic: 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌺𐍃 (halks)
• Greek: μάταιος (el) (mátaios)

  Ancient: μάταιος (mátaios)

• Hindi: फ़ज़ूल (fazūl), अकारथ (hi) (akārath)
• Ido: vana (io)
• Italian: futile (it)
• Japanese: 無用 (ja) (むよう, muyō), 無駄 (ja) (むだ, muda), 無益 (ja) (むえき, mueki)
• Khmer: អសារ (km) (a’saa)
• Latin: futilis, cassus
• Malay: sia-sia (ms)
• Maori: mūhore, papakore, huakore
• 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), بی فایده (fa), پوچ (fa) (puč)
• Polish: daremny (pl) m, bezcelowy (pl)
• 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), vano (es)
• Swedish: meningslös (sv), lönlös (sv), fåfäng (sv)
• Thai: เปล่าประโยชน์
• Turkish: beyhude (tr), boş (tr), nafile (tr)
• Ukrainian: некори́сний (nekorýsnyj), даре́мний (darémnyj)
• Vietnamese: vô dụng (vi), vô ích (vi)
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fūtilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fy.til/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -il

Adjective

futile (plural futiles)

1. futile

Related terms

• futilité

Further reading

• “futile”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

From Latin fūtilis (“futile, worthless”, literally “that easily pours out”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfu.ti.le/
• Rhymes: -utile
• Hyphenation: fù‧ti‧le

Adjective

futile (plural futili)

1. futile, frivolous, worthless

Derived terms

• futilmente

Related terms

• futilità

Further reading

• futile in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• fluite

Latin

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

• futtile

Adverb

fūtile (not comparable)

1. in vain

Synonyms

• frustrā
• in cassum

Etymology 2

Adjective

fūtile

1. nominative/accusative/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 Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.