Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Being or having no beneficial use; futile or ineffective.
- adj. Incapable of functioning or assisting; ineffectual: He panics easily and is useless in an emergency. See Synonyms at futile.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having no use; being of no use; unserviceable; usable to no good end; answering no valuable purpose; not advancing the end proposed; unprofitable; ineffectual.
- Synonyms Useless, Fruitless, Ineffectual, Unavailing, bootless, profitless, unprofitable, valueless, worthless, futile, abortive. Useless often implies that the cause of failure lies in the situation; as, it is useless to try to mend that clock. Useless is the only one of these words that may thus be applied by anticipation to what might be attempted. That which is fruitless, ineffectual, or unavailing actually fails, and from hindrances external to itself. Unavailing is more likely to be used the fruitless or ineffectual where the failure is through some one's unwillingness; as, unavailing prayers or petitions, ineffectual efforts, fruitless labors. Fruitless is stronger and more final than ineffectual or unavailing.
Wiktionary
- adj. Without use or possibility to be used.
- adj. Unhelpful, not useful; pointless (of an action).
- adj. pejorative, of a person good-for-nothing; not dependable.
- adj. colloquial, of a person unable to do well at a particular task or thing. Useless is mildly insulting.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having, or being of, no use; unserviceable; producing no good end; answering no valuable purpose; not advancing the end proposed; unprofitable; ineffectual.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having no beneficial use or incapable of functioning usefully
Examples
“My reasons for this will show why I consider the term useless and muddled.”
“The moderate-conservative GOP leader considers the term useless, viewing it as a fifth-wheel after-thought approach to expanding the party's base.”
“It's all laid out in that museum, in what you called useless junk.”
“On the floor of the long room was a large brasero in which the new librarian was burning up a quantity of what he described as useless and miscellaneous books, with a view to the rearrangement of the library.”
“Before a month had passed my mother was confessing a dread that the Professor might return and claim the child; she was pleading with my father to abandon what she called a useless and an expensive search.”
“On the floor of the long room was a large _brasero_ in which the new librarian was burning up a quantity of what he described as useless and miscellaneous books, with a view to the rearrangement of the library.”
“Early in the siege, the governor of the town drove out what he called the useless mouths, to the number of seventeen hundred persons, men and women, young and old.”
“This is what you call useless when compared to Google (et al).”
“The ordinance limits the number of his messages on his business 'electric sign down to what he calls a useless rate, while others, including some in the city, keep rolling along.”
“Or "What do you call the useless flap of skin attached to a penis?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘useless’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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-more or -less
Words ending with *more or *less, more or less. Many of theses terms also appear on the list The -less Said, which see.
schemaless, jobless, endless, useless, unless, guileless, wireless, regardless, homeless, nevertheless, countless, doubtless and 434 more...
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disinformation
words meaning bad or not real data
foo, gobbledygook, spin, blacklist, corrupt, fraudulent, debauched, nefarious, untrustworthy, spam, deranged, mental and 22 more...
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Kalli's Words
redundant, munchkin, escapade, natch, boom, fap, geek, nocturnal, pedantic, tactile, conversant, oxymoron and 188 more...
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Apples to Apples: Green Cards
A complete list of the green cards (adjectives) from the popular word game.
absurd, addictive, adorable, aged, American, ancient, animated, annoying, appetizing, arrogant, awesome, awkward and 237 more...
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colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
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Alles ganz verschieden
Listed various words that have come into my mind. Will edit them at some point - honestly.
dog-gold, shoulderlooker, mr. considering, the pigwoman, stevie is waiting, chingwybodganpwy, thelandscapeisstu..., couchsurfing, cappuccinodrinking, meat-eater, posher, mae rhaid i fi fynd and 581 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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The -less Said...
hopeless, bootless, groundless, luckless, artless, feckless, hapless, joyless, useless, penniless, childless, peerless and 310 more...
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suzyg's Words
brandish, recompence, shopping, dichotomy, paradigm, reverse osmosis, anyway, despite, drunk, degenerate, insipid, grateful and 438 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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You Broke It!
After the school bully breaks your new yo-yo, you can use these words to describe it. All hail the carnage!
broken, faulty, slipshod, weak, destroyed, dismantled, busted, cracked, chipped, bent, shattered, irreparable and 147 more...
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PirateIam's Words
this, site, is, the, most, useless, piece, of, crap, ever, created
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list
moon, rose, sea, beach, surf, fish, sun, water, eye, cloud, lasagna, chocolate and 17 more...
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LetsPlayAuthor's list
Words =P
peril, incredulous, superfluous, inadequacy, perfection, fantasy, daydream, wrath, literature, blood, love, amour and 23 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for useless.
hernesheir Useless, useless. - John Wilkes Booth's last words. Feb 11, 2011