- 1
Futility is the noun: the fact that some actions are useless because they have no real chance of success. You feel the futility of an argument, see the futility of a plan, talk about the futility of war. It names the emptiness of the effort, not a single object you can hold. It is formal, a little heavy, and often a little sad — the moment when you understand that trying harder will still not help. In everyday talk many people just say ‘there’s no point’ or ‘it’s useless’. Writers like futility because it packs that whole feeling into one word.
徒勞、白費、徒勞無功
組成From Latin fūtilitās (‘worthlessness, futility’). By the look of the English word: futile + -ity (turns the adjective into a noun).
同家族的字
- futilethe adjective this noun is built from
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
futilitynoun/fjuːˈtɪlɪti/
- 1
The quality of being futile or useless.
- an exercise of futility
- His taking the bar exam for a third time was pure futility.
- 2
Something, especially an act, that is futile.
- But fashion and authority apart, and bringing Plato to the test of reason, take from him, his sophisms, futilities, and incomprehensibilities, and what remains?
- No man oppresses thee, can bid thee fetch or carry, come or go, without reason shewn. […] No man, wiser, unwiser, can make thee come or go: but thy own futilities, bewilderments, thy false appetites for Money, Windsor Georges and such like?
- 3
Unimportance.
- Her empty chatter, her futility, her childish coquetry and frivolity—such light wares could hardly be the whole substance of any woman’s being; […]
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。