fruitless

adjective

fruit·less ˈfrüt-ləs

Synonyms of fruitless next

: unsuccessful

a fruitless attempt

: lacking or not bearing fruit

fruitlessly adverb

fruitlessness noun

Choose the Right Synonym for fruitless

futile, vain, fruitless mean producing no result.

futile may connote completeness of failure or unwisdom of undertaking.

resistance had proved so futile that surrender was the only choice left

vain usually implies simple failure to achieve a desired result.

a vain attempt to get the car started

fruitless comes close to vain but often suggests long and arduous effort or severe disappointment.

fruitless efforts to obtain a lasting peace

Examples of fruitless in a Sentence

They made a fruitless attempt to find a solution. It would be fruitless to continue.

Recent Examples on the Web That Rival Sully's 'Miracle' Ultimately, their efforts were fruitless. —

Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, 7 Sep. 2023 Walmart wouldn’t be liable, and suing a foreign company would likely be fruitless. —

Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2023 This was grueling, often fruitless work, knocking on doors—and having many of them shut in your face. —

Michal Lev-Ram, Fortune, 22 Aug. 2023 But attempts to make other deals have been fruitless. —

Ovetta Wiggins, Washington Post, 22 Aug. 2023 The fruitless search was called off at nightfall and resumed Sunday morning. —

Lawrence Specker | Lspecker@al.com, al, 6 Aug. 2023 Cano had longed to be a father, and to that point, the couple’s efforts to have a child had been fruitless. —

Nathan Ruiz, Baltimore Sun, 1 June 2023 Her mother was on her way back home Monday, after the fruitless effort to help find Maia. —

Kelly Yamanouchi The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (tns), al, 28 Aug. 2023 Washington’s knee-jerk reaction to unsettled times is to push to revive fruitless negotiations. —

Michael Oren, Foreign Affairs, 31 May 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fruitless.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.