as in futile
producing no results
an unsuccessful attempt to fix the faucet ourselves
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Recent Examples of unsuccessful
Last week, in a game against Mexico, in Guadalajara, Son took a promising, but unsuccessful, lob shot early on (which was blocked by an opponent’s gravitationally improbable bicycle kick), then seemed to wear himself out, running up and down the pitch.
—
E. Tammy Kim,
New Yorker,
24 June 2026
An attempt to reach Wright by phone Tuesday afternoon was unsuccessful.
—
Grant Lancaster,
Arkansas Online,
23 June 2026
The suspect was unsuccessful in washing the check, but the amount was altered and the check was signed and the suspect attempted to cash it.
—
Nollyanne Delacruz,
Mercury News,
23 June 2026
The zoo said the procedure was unsuccessful.
—
Cecilio Padilla,
CBS News,
22 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for unsuccessful
E. Tammy Kim,
New Yorker,
24 June 2026
An attempt to reach Wright by phone Tuesday afternoon was unsuccessful.
—
Grant Lancaster,
Arkansas Online,
23 June 2026
The suspect was unsuccessful in washing the check, but the amount was altered and the check was signed and the suspect attempted to cash it.
—
Nollyanne Delacruz,
Mercury News,
23 June 2026
The zoo said the procedure was unsuccessful.
—
Cecilio Padilla,
CBS News,
22 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for unsuccessful
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unsuccessful
Adjective
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Exciting and futile The Humans to Titan Summit was both exciting and futile, said Pascal Lee, chairman of the Mars Institute and a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute.
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All these plans acknowledge the experience gap, namely that training without arranging relevant work experience is often futile.
Adjective
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At any rate, upon election my first official act would be to file legislation to do away with the useless job.
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An ultra-secure cloud environment is useless if the identity management policy is lax or if access privileges are not reviewed on a strict need-to-know basis.
Adjective
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As children, Vi and Jinx lose their parents in an abortive revolution in Zaun, and years later find themselves on opposite sides of an unfolding power struggle between the two city-states.
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Those forces have remained in the country, albeit now with more direct control from the Kremlin (after Wagner’s bombastic chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, led an abortive coup against Moscow and paid the ultimate price for it).
Cite this Entry
“Unsuccessful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unsuccessful. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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