1
as in futility
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2
as in pointlessness
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Recent Examples of uselessness
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
Tamerra Griffin, New York Times, 8 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for uselessness
Noun
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Along with the life-saving food can be a message for the combatants to choose peace over the futility of war.—
William Lambers,
Hartford Courant,
19 Jan. 2026
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Much of the storyline focuses on the futility of war, violence, and revenge.—
Wilson Chapman,
IndieWire,
15 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Such expeditions can turn into a Buddhistic exercise in enlightened pointlessness.—
Alex Ross,
New Yorker,
24 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Goff pointed to ineffectiveness on first down in the second half, forcing the offensive line into situations where Los Angeles could turn to its powerful pass rush.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
15 Dec. 2025
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Mike Vrabel has blamed his squad’s ground ineffectiveness on his RB stable being too ball-security focused.—
Brad Evans,
New York Times,
17 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In the work of David Blanchflower and Alex Bryson, previously covered by Fortune, a widespread sense of meaninglessness drives dissatisfaction with work and therefore life.—
Tristan Bove,
Fortune,
29 Jan. 2026
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Could meaninglessness itself be a message?—
Joshua Rothman,
New Yorker,
14 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Problems shrink into insignificance.—
Shilo Urban,
Travel + Leisure,
22 Nov. 2025
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Her difficulty lay in her distance from the random violence of insignificance.—
Rachel Cusk,
New Yorker,
24 Aug. 2025
Noun
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In which SpongeBob and Gary the Snail have a conversation about string cheese, and the Flying Dutchman goes crazy at the sheer inanity of it.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
21 Dec. 2025
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The inanity and nihilism is still there, but tinged with something darker and more permanent, a sense that the rules of capitalism changed.—
Liz Hoffman,
semafor.com,
19 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Instead, the general indifference shown toward its own story — or, at least, the best versions of it — comes to emphasize the emptiness at its core.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
8 Jan. 2026
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He was left with an unfamiliar emptiness.—
Cara Lynn Shultz,
PEOPLE,
6 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Uselessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/uselessness. Accessed 30 Jan. 2026.
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