What is another word for useless?

Synonyms for useless
ˈyus lɪsuse·less

This thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word useless.

Wiktionary1.0 / 1 vote

  1. uselessadjective

    Antonyms:
    useful, skillful

  2. uselessadjective

    This fork has prongs that are bent. It's useless now.

    Antonyms:
    skillful, useful

  3. uselessadjective

    Antonyms:
    useful, skillful

  4. uselessadjective

    good-for-nothing; not dependable.

    Bill never mows the lawn, takes out the trash or anything. He's useless, but I love him anyways.

    Synonyms:
    good-for-nothing

    Antonyms:
    skillful, useful

  5. uselessadjective

    unable to do well at a particular task or thing. Useless is mildly insulting.

    Synonyms:
    unskillful

    Antonyms:
    skillful, useful

English Synonyms and Antonyms5.0 / 1 vote

  1. useless

    Vain (Latin vanus, empty) keeps the etymological idea through all changes of meaning; a vain endeavor is empty of result, or of adequate power to produce a result, a vain pretension is empty or destitute of support, a vain person has a conceit that is empty or destitute of adequate cause or reason. That which is bootless, fruitless, or profitless fails to accomplish any valuable result; that which is abortive, ineffectual, or unavailing fails to accomplish a result that it was, or was supposed to be, adapted to accomplish. That which is useless, futile, or vain is inherently incapable of accomplishing a specified result. Useless, in the widest sense, signifies not of use for any valuable purpose, and is thus closely similar to valueless and worthless. Fruitless is more final than ineffectual, as applying to the sum or harvest of endeavor. That which is useless lacks actual fitness for a purpose; that which is vain lacks imaginable fitness. Compare VACANT; OSTENTATION; PRIDE.

    Compare synonyms for UTILITY.

    Synonyms:
    abortive, baseless, bootless, deceitful, delusive, empty, fruitless, futile, idle, inconstant, ineffectual, nugatory, null, profitless, shadowy, trifling, trivial, unavailing, unimportant, unprofitable, unreal, unsatisfying, unserviceable, unsubstantial, vain, vapid, visionary, worthless

    Antonyms:
    adequate, advantageous, beneficial, competent, effective, efficient, expedient, potent, powerful, profitable, real, serviceable, solid, sound, substantial, sufficient, useful, valid, valuable, worthy

Princeton's WordNet5.0 / 1 vote

  1. uselessadjective

    having no beneficial use or incapable of functioning usefully

    "a kitchen full of useless gadgets"; "she is useless in an emergency"

    Antonyms:
    useful, recyclable, utilizable, reusable, utile, utilitarian, useable, serviceable, usable, reclaimable, multipurpose

Dictionary of English Synonymes3.0 / 1 vote

  1. uselessadjective

    Synonyms:
    unavailing, fruitless, bootless, profitless, unprofitable, unserviceable, valueless, worthless, futile, abortive, null, nugatory, of no use

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words0.0 / 0 votes

  1. uselessadjective

    Synonyms:
    unserviceable, futile, worthless, unavailing, bootless, ineffectual, null, nugatory, abortive

How to pronounce useless?

How to say useless in sign language?

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

Words popularity by usage frequency

rankingword
#2578null
#2964empty
#9013idle
#9462unnecessary
#10226useless
#12556trivial
#13230unreal
#15690vain
#17218ineffective
#17350needless
#18270pointless
#19590visionary
#19887meaningless
#20769worthless
#24369unhelpful
#26975futile
#32026unimportant
#35057senseless
#35182unusable
#35699superfluous
#38056wasteful
#38689shadowy
#48116fruitless
#55524deceitful
#55539unprofitable
#60134baseless
#61666ineffectual
#69037trifling
#72180abortive
#90731unsatisfying
#94014vapid
#109464unavailing
#131299unserviceable
#146779inconstant
#203636delusive
#226052unskillful
#244598unsubstantial
#245515nugatory
#291737profitless

How to use useless in a sentence?

  1. Thomas Alva Edison:

    Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

  2. Edith Wharton:

    My first few weeks in America are always miserable, because the tastes I am cursed with are all of a kind that cannot be gratified here, and I am not enough in sympathy with our gross public to make up for the lack on the aesthetic side. One's friends are delightful; but we are none of us Americans, we don't think or feel as the Americans do, we are the wretched exotics produced in a European glass-house, the most displaced and useless class on earth!

  3. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the preface:

    All art is quite useless.

  4. Francis Picabia:

    Only useless things are indispensable.

  5. Janet Garner:

    Every step is painful, it feels like walking on sharp rocks— it’s really hard. I feel helpless and useless.


Translations for useless

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for useless »

Translation

Find a translation for the useless synonym in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Citation

Use the citation below to add these synonyms to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"useless." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 15 Feb. 2025. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/useless>.

Discuss these useless synonyms with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good synonym for useless?

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant synonyms for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant synonyms for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Quiz

    Are you a human thesaurus?

    »
    Which of the following words is not a synonym of the others?
    A unpracticed
    B new
    C callow
    D experient

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for useless: