View synonyms for

useless

[yoos-lis]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

of no use; not serving the purpose or any purpose; unavailing or futile.
It is useless to reason with him.
Synonyms: , , , ,
Antonyms:
without useful qualities; of no practical good.
a useless person; a useless gadget.
Synonyms: ,

useless

/ ˈ��ː��ɪ�� /

adjective

having no practical use or advantage
informal��ineffectual, weak, or stupid
he's useless at history

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Other Word Forms

uselessly adverb
uselessness noun
ˈ�ܲ�� adverb
ˈ�ܲ��Ա�� noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of useless¹

First recorded in 1585–95; use + -less

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Synonym Study

Useless, futile, ineffectual, vain refer to that which is unavailing. That is useless which is unavailing because of the circumstances of the case or some inherent defect: It is useless to cry over spilt milk. Futile suggests wasted effort and complete failure to attain a desired end: All attempts were futile. That which is ineffectual weakly applies energy in an ill-advised way and does not produce a desired effect: an ineffectual effort. That which is vain is fruitless or hopeless even after all possible effort: It is vain to keep on hoping.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The video layers on camp with a '70s B-movie aesthetic while she describes men in her life using words like "useless," "stupid" and "slow."

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“I was a useless little vegetable,” Wilson said in the interview.

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“I feel very heartbroken, and basically useless. We are seeing our family member being mistreated and there’s nothing we can do about it. There is a lot of confusion and all of us are scared.”

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As well as bragging about installing ransomware across the M&S IT system to render it useless, the hackers say they have stolen the private data of millions of customers.

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"Now all this new super system is quite useless, at the moment, all that money is gone."

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