as in aimless
having or seeming to have no purpose or reason
I have to go to another purposeless meeting tonight. purposeless suffering
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Recent Examples of purposeless
Marine biologists had thought that the pelvic bones were purposeless in the marine environment, and would eventually disappear given another million or so years of evolution.
—
Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 9 Sep. 2014
But here’s a question: How much longer can the country afford to lure so many of its promising talents into a life of purposeless paper-pushing and legalized economic vandalism that antitrust has become?
—Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 10 May 2022
Religion gives meaning to human lives, which otherwise can feel purposeless.
—WSJ, 21 Dec. 2021
In How To Do Nothing, Jenny Odell talks about how the pursuit of productivity — driven by capitalism, competition, and consumption — has redirected our attention outward, leaving us feeling empty and purposeless.
—refinery29.com, 7 Sep. 2021
Although gender is effectively purposeless—if not irrelevant—in gaming, my brothers reflected society's obsession with forcing others to choose between pink or blue.
—Jamie Valentino, Wired, 22 June 2021
These protests are nearly all disingenuous, false and specious, and meant to utilize fear to continue a tragic and purposeless war.
—Matthew Hoh, CNN, 17 May 2021
In Mazars, Trump may yet be able to convince the lower courts that Congress’s rationale for seeking his financial records is too broad, too partisan, or too purposeless.
—Matt Ford, The New Republic, 9 July 2020
Well, given the malignant chaos of a purposeless universe, what’s one little false allegation in the scheme of things?
—USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2020
Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 9 Sep. 2014
But here’s a question: How much longer can the country afford to lure so many of its promising talents into a life of purposeless paper-pushing and legalized economic vandalism that antitrust has become?
—Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 10 May 2022
Religion gives meaning to human lives, which otherwise can feel purposeless.
—WSJ, 21 Dec. 2021
In How To Do Nothing, Jenny Odell talks about how the pursuit of productivity — driven by capitalism, competition, and consumption — has redirected our attention outward, leaving us feeling empty and purposeless.
—refinery29.com, 7 Sep. 2021
Although gender is effectively purposeless—if not irrelevant—in gaming, my brothers reflected society's obsession with forcing others to choose between pink or blue.
—Jamie Valentino, Wired, 22 June 2021
These protests are nearly all disingenuous, false and specious, and meant to utilize fear to continue a tragic and purposeless war.
—Matthew Hoh, CNN, 17 May 2021
In Mazars, Trump may yet be able to convince the lower courts that Congress’s rationale for seeking his financial records is too broad, too partisan, or too purposeless.
—Matt Ford, The New Republic, 9 July 2020
Well, given the malignant chaos of a purposeless universe, what’s one little false allegation in the scheme of things?
—USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for purposeless
Adjective
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Those examples were everywhere as the team seemed to make a relatively aimless pass through the regular season.—
Sam Amick,
New York Times,
1 May 2025
-
His goal was to capture that throwback feeling of aimless summer days strolling down the boardwalk with the frozen snack in hand in his Lemon Italian Ice flavor.—
Rachel Chang,
Travel + Leisure,
26 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
And yet, in certain ways, the film doesn’t go as deep as Orwell’s observations; its choice of illustrative material generally hews to contemporary party lines, even while showcasing wise words that render such distinctions all but meaningless.—
Sheri Linden,
HollywoodReporter,
17 May 2025
-
Passion projects are paused indefinitely, tasks feel meaningless, and things at work that used to make sense now just seem pointless.—
Lindsay Kohler,
Forbes.com,
16 May 2025
Adjective
-
In lieu of federal regulation, there was a haphazard patchwork of state and local laws surrounding certain foods pre-1906.—
Lauren Leffer,
Popular Science,
1 May 2025
-
Others may be haphazard power grabs, or may amount to something more.—
Andrew Marantz,
New Yorker,
28 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
In some cases, lawyers said students had their legal statuses altered for minor traffic violations, such as unpaid parking tickets.—
Zachary Schermele,
USA Today,
16 May 2025
-
Nina and Jim are forced to work overtime to re-center key story components that get lost amid more minor twists and turns.—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
15 May 2025
Adjective
-
Fortunately, the fan who was hit showed little to none sign that anything unusual had happened.—
Julio Cesar Valdera Morales,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 May 2025
-
And while most Americans have heard about the stock market fluctuations, 20 percent have heard little about them or nothing at all.—
Ruth Igielnik,
New York Times,
18 May 2025
Adjective
-
But in a time long before replay could overturn a call, protest was useless.—
Blair Kerkhoff,
Kansas City Star,
16 May 2025
-
Those strong starts are useless if the Celtics can’t hold onto the advantage.—
Kristian Winfield,
New York Daily News,
12 May 2025
Adjective
-
It’s not always taken seriously enough, despite the fact that employees cite office gossip as their number one pet peeve more than pointless meetings, coworkers taking undeserved credit and micromanagement.—
Bryan Robinson,
Forbes.com,
7 May 2025
-
Corporate-restructuring deals, by comparison, felt pointless.—
Charles Bethea,
New Yorker,
28 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
However, at some point while walking the red carpet on Saturday, May 17, the two got mixed up in slight blunder when the Twilight star, 39, ended up standing on top of his costar's elegant Dior gown that, according to Vogue, took 250 hours to create.—
Michelle Lee,
People.com,
19 May 2025
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Meanwhile, a DeepMind researcher discussed adversarial machine learning, a phenomenon where slight manipulations to input data can drastically alter an AI’s output.—
Korok Ray,
Forbes.com,
19 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Purposeless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/purposeless. Accessed 23 May. 2025.
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