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
-
Her dull, aimless life in Chicago as a cleaner who's stuck with her relatives is the opposite of special though.—
Fran Ruiz,
Space.com,
20 Feb. 2025
-
Oh, the delicious irony of Mr. Only the Ivies Count Lest Your Child Fail to Launch having a daughter who’s in an aimless 19th month of a gap year between high school and college.—
Sophie Brookover,
Vulture,
21 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
If Missouri were to abolish state income taxes, tax credits would become meaningless.—
Jeremy Kohler,
ProPublica,
5 Mar. 2025
-
Xavier is headed out of the silo Xavier was always going to leave the silo to try to find his wife, despite a brief tryst with Sinatra's therapist, Dr. Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi), that wound up being meaningless from both a plot and character perspective.—
Eliana Dockterman,
TIME,
4 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
The fantastical final product looks haphazard and far from realistic, but serves as a manifestation of their unattainable desires — which includes whitening their skin and erasing all facial blemishes.—
Carlos Aguilar,
IndieWire,
8 Mar. 2025
-
These are professionals at work here, and yet the staging of virtually every kinetic showstopper feels haphazard at best.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
6 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
The cab driver suffered minor back and neck injuries in the crash and claimed Zangrilli was drunk but the responding officer sent the inspector on his way, telling the cabbie to file an accident report at an NYPD precinct.—
Thomas Tracy,
New York Daily News,
4 Mar. 2025
-
According to a statement from the Danville Police Department, the drivers of both vehicles suffered minor injuries, while two other passengers in the truck were unhurt.—
Rick Hurd,
The Mercury News,
4 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Without fair elections, an honest media environment and a credible opposition, voters can’t correct their country’s course at the ballot box, providing competitive authoritarian regimes little incentive to do anything but enrich themselves.—
Elizabeth Shackelford,
Chicago Tribune,
7 Mar. 2025
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Dolly Parton and Carl Dean had one of the entertainment industry's most enduring marriages, but very little is known about the country music legend's late husband.—
Ashley Hume,
Fox News,
7 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Those assets are useless on a device like the Deck, and take up unnecessary space.—
Jason Evangelho,
Forbes,
6 Mar. 2025
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In stereotypical rich-TV-family fashion, the ultimate symbol of Baba’s success is that both of his sons are sort of useless.—
Angie Han,
The Hollywood Reporter,
5 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Organizations like Shopify have eliminated up to 76,500 hours of pointless meetings through similar audits.—
Keith Ferrazzi,
Forbes,
12 Mar. 2025
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If not, maybe the discussion about K2-18b's habitability is, more or less, pointless.—
Perri Thaler,
Space.com,
11 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Freud’s notion of remembering, the inexact reiteration of what came before, is where creativity emerges—that slight drift from the original that lets something unlikely slip in.—
Namwali Serpell,
The New Yorker,
8 Mar. 2025
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The bill released Saturday will fund the government through Sept. 30 and provide a slight boost to defense spending while making a moderate cut to non-defense programs.—
Deirdre Walsh,
NPR,
8 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Purposeless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/purposeless. Accessed 16 Mar. 2025.
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