futile
It is hard not to be taken aback by the scale and utter futility of it all.
She realized the futility of arguing with him.
A terrible, numbing sense of futility swept over him.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Useless and futile
adrift
aimless
aimlessly
aimlessness
airy-fairy
fruitless
fruitlessly
fruitlessness
futile
futilely
negation
no goodidiom
non-viable
nugatory
ornamental
unrealistic
unrealistically
unseriousness
until you are blue in the faceidiom
unviability

Examples of futility

futility
Debates about futility are debates about specific interpretations of the basic concept.
In the futility design, the active treatment group is generally compared to a pre-determined threshold value(s) based on clinical judgment or historical data.
However, in the intensive care unit futility is in the eye of the few beholders who see patient care according to the curative mode.
An intervention may yield results slightly worse than the futility threshold, but would not be rejected as futile.
These relationships contrasted between and within vertebrate groups, underlining the futility of searching for an all-encompassing functional explanation for all vertebrates.
Bringing clarity to the futility debate: are the cases wrong?
These characteristics of futility decisions are challenges to the baby-boomer ethos and are therefore likely to produce resistance.
What is astonishing is that these apes, in the face of so much futility, persist in their attempts to manipulate people through intentional communication.
This volume attests to the futility of these efforts to endow the child with the ' right stuff ' for solving the problem.
I would classify that as indeed a question of professional integrity - but not a question of futility.
Contemplating total artificial heart inactivation in cases of futility.
It is noteworthy that most of the futility policies of the participating institutions succeeded in addressing both these components.
Thus, the futility trials may have identified an important variable before committing to a larger study.
Decisions concerning the medical futility of interventions may be fraught with apprehension and misgivings for everyone involved.
This should enable the use of the futility design, leading to more rapid and efficient clinical development programs.
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