futile

From Middle French futile, from Latin fūtilis. Doublet of god.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfjuː.taɪl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfju.taɪl/, /ˈfju.təl/
• Rhymes: -uːtəl (US)

futile (comparative more futile, superlative most futile)

1. Incapable of producing results; doomed not to be successful; not worth attempting.
   • 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 222716698, 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 5661828:

     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.

• useless, see also Thesaurus:futile

• effectual
• effective
• fruitful

• futility
• futilitarian

Borrowed from Latin fūtilis.

• IPA^(key): /fy.til/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -il

futile (plural futiles)

1. futile

• futilité

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

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

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

futile (plural futili)

1. futile, frivolous, worthless

• futilmente

• futilità

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

• fluite

• futtile

fūtile (not comparable)

1. in vain

• frustrā
• in cassum

fūtile

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of fūtilis

• “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