noun
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lack of effectiveness or success
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lack of purpose or meaning
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something futile
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of futility
From the Latin word fūtilitās, dating back to 1615–25. See futile, -ity
Explanation
When you can’t see the point in even trying, that’s the feeling of futility, the sense that no matter how much you work at it, nothing good will happen, so you might as well give up. What’s the point? That’s the question asked by anyone who senses the futility of something. The futility of war makes soldiers put down their weapons, and your father’s strict rules makes any protest an act of futility. The root word is the Latin futilis, which literally means “leaky.” Imagine pouring lemonade into a cup that has no bottom. No matter how long you pour, you’ll never get a sip because of that leaky cup. Ah, the futility!
Vocabulary lists containing futility
Born a Crime
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"Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Some might find it humanizing—proof that below the bloviating gestalt, the president can become awed by existential futility.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
Back and forth they went in their futility.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2026
Strikingly for someone with an enviable career, she is wonderfully unsparing on the futility of chasing success.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
Meanwhile. the Indiana Pacers matched a franchise record for futility with their 12th straight defeat, falling 135-127 to the Magic in Orlando.
From Barron's ● Jan. 4, 2026
But this one time we were studying Walt Whitman and his feelings of being helpless or the futility of life or something.
From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed
But in nominating one as secretary of state and the other as defense secretary, President Obama hopes to bring to his administration two veterans with the same sensibility about the futilities of war.
From New York Times ● Jan. 8, 2013
There's something about the way Wallinger composes apparent futilities with such systematic earnestness that is in itself convincing.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 22, 2012
South China Sea Pishkun is a remarkable digital animation by Vietnamese artist Dinh Q Lê that tackles the grim futilities of warfare with an almost hallucinatory metaphorical force.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 22, 2011
"A glittering shambles/ of enthrallments and futilities," goes one complaint; "a warren of untruth, a propped/ vacuity."
From Time Magazine Archive
He knew most of the famous futilities generally called Philosophy, but he studied them as a pathologist studies his morbid specimens—to learn and teach what to avoid and how to cure.
From The Unpopular Review, Number 19 July-December 1918 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
