futile

From Middle French futile, from Latin fūtilis.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfjuː.taɪl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfju.taɪ.əl/, /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.
   • 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, 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.

   Synonym: useless

• See also Thesaurus:futile

• effectual
• effective

• futility
• futilitarian

Borrowed from Latin fūtilis.

• IPA^(key): /fy.til/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -il

futile (plural futiles)

1. futile

• futilité

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

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈfu.ti.le/, [ˈfuːt̪il̺e]
• Rhymes: -utile
• Stress: fùtile
• Hyphenation: fu‧ti‧le

futile (masculine and feminine plural futili)

1. futile, frivolous, worthless

• futilmente

• futilità

• fluite

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

fūtile

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