🇬🇧 Futile meaning: English Vocabulary Flash Card

If something is futile, it means that no matter how hard you try, it still won’t work or change anything—your effort is like shouting at a brick wall or trying to teach a potato to do math.

Trying to stop Grandma from telling embarrassing baby stories was futile; she even had a slideshow ready on her phone.

Trying to keep my white shirt clean on spaghetti night was a futile dream that ended in a modern art sauce painting.

Our plan to quietly open a giant bag of chips in the movie theater was futile; it sounded like we were unwrapping a helicopter.

Trying to convince a baby that peas are delicious is often a futile mission, especially when they respond by decorating the walls with them.

Trying to tickle yourself is scientifically futile because your brain predicts your own moves.

He climbed a shaky ladder in the rain, desperate to stop the drip. Every patch was futile, every nail was futile, every shout futile against the storm. The bucket filled, spilled, and filled again; his work felt futile, utterly futile. He sat on the wet step, laughed, and went inside.

This word is at the C2 level, which means it represents the highest mastery of English. It’s often used in specialized or highly formal contexts and helps you communicate with precision and subtlety, much like a native speaker.

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