uselessness

noun

1
as in futility

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2
as in pointlessness

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of uselessness The goal isn't to restrict agents into uselessness. — Ajay Pundhir, Forbes.com, 16 Apr. 2026 The fear of uselessness explains why the banker Eric Tao (Ken Leung) leaves a cushy retirement to get back to finance, even at the cost of neglecting his kids. — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2026 Holding back tears, Marta called out the uselessness of comparing this season to last year’s championship run. — Tamerra Griffin, New York Times, 8 Nov. 2025 Scott has not much to do as the cheerfully dorky dad who takes to Seattle like a duck to water, but his very uselessness is part of the joke and then part of the plot. — Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for uselessness
  1. futility
  2. pointlessness
  3. ineffectiveness
  4. meaninglessness
  5. insignificance
  6. inanity
  7. emptiness
Noun
  • For anyone asking whether this kind of analysis—unequal parts interpretation, speculation, and evaluation—will save a worrying figure, the query imparts its own futility.
    — Lauren Michele Jackson, New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2026
  • It is well documented that this sense of futility is demotivating.
    — Anandita Sabherwal, Time, 3 Aug. 2026
Definition of futility
Noun
  • The battle that follows — a muddy and mean scrum — is even more ghastly, partly for its utter pointlessness.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 17 June 2026
  • Such expeditions can turn into a Buddhistic exercise in enlightened pointlessness.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
Definition of pointlessness
Noun
  • But Messi’s lack of influence owed less to his own ineffectiveness than to Spain’s dominance, which starved him of the ball, leaving him to feed off scraps.
    — Jack Lang, New York Times, 19 July 2026
  • The commission has been plagued by partisan infighting and ineffectiveness, as well as chronic vacancies and a lack of funding.
    — Jen Fifield, ProPublica, 10 July 2026
Definition of ineffectiveness
Noun
  • Arendt, evidently depressed and convinced of life’s meaninglessness, found his teaching electrifying.
    — David Denby, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026
  • Like emo in the early to mid ’00s, the genre marker has been muddied to the point of near meaninglessness.
    — Brendan Menapace, SPIN, 3 Aug. 2026
Definition of meaninglessness
Noun
  • Artist Meredith Reynolds believed Platner’s past paled into insignificance when compared with his opponents.
    — David Millward, The Washington Examiner, 7 June 2026
  • Problems shrink into insignificance.
    — Shilo Urban, Travel + Leisure, 19 May 2026
Definition of insignificance
Noun
  • But the flight to extremism, and the metastasizing inanity, is a two-party problem, and those of us who are Democrats and who care about the importance of regrowing the dormant (if not dead) political center have an obligation to try to do something about it.
    — Jeffrey Robbins, Boston Herald, 4 May 2026
  • The post-liberals stand for cruelty and inanity, but Brooks can’t admit to standing for much of anything at all.
    — Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2026
Definition of inanity
Noun
  • The problem isn’t the characterization, since the surgeon is extremely well drawn and Văncică’s performance picks up on both the overall inner emptiness and the yearning for something more.
    — Jay Weissberg, Variety, 14 Aug. 2026
  • If the early universe obeyed this rule, our modern cosmos would be devoid of substance, just energy fields rippling eternally through emptiness.
    — Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of emptiness

Browse Nearby Words

useless
uselessness
user
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Cite this Entry

“Uselessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/uselessness. Accessed 17 Aug. 2026.

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