How to Use futility in a Sentence

futility

noun
Definition of futilitynext
Synonyms for futilitynext
  • At first blush, the collective futility of the division’s four teams is startling.
    — Mike Jones, USA TODAY, 9 Oct. 2020
  • There weren't enough margaritas in town to wash away the Padres’ frustration and futility over the years.
    — Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY, 30 Sep. 2020
  • That’s a level of kicking futility that would embarrass even Alabama.
    — Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 21 Sep. 2020
  • Braves manager Brian Snitker turned to humor when discussing fall futility.
    — David Brandt, Star Tribune, 30 Sep. 2020
  • Much of Augustine’s writing was intended to dramatize the futility of perfecting the will.
    — Meghan O'Gieblyn, Wired, 26 Oct. 2020
  • The Reds set a Major League Baseball record for offensive futility in the postseason.
    — John Fay, The Enquirer, 1 Oct. 2020
  • In the predawn dark, Magdy Gamal sat in the bridge of the Mosaed 2 and stared up at an iron wall of futility.
    — Washington Post, 31 Mar. 2021
  • The Jets’ record of futility is, in fact, a matter of record.
    — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 29 Apr. 2021
  • The futility of that ballclub is what sparked the rebuild that’s led to now.
    — Jacob Calvin Meyer, Baltimore Sun, 28 Mar. 2024
  • Being on the wrong end of a 40-point run was an NCAA record for futility.
    — Terry Pluto, cleveland, 15 Jan. 2021
  • The guards were clearly trying to make sense of the team’s futility.
    — C.j. Holmes, New York Daily News, 20 Jan. 2024
  • The Rapids might not set historic marks for futility in terms of points earned.
    — Ian Nicholas Quillen, Forbes, 16 July 2023
  • The job-changing trend has revived a debate about the futility of the rat race.
    — Zixu Wang, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2023
  • Change takes time, though not winning a statewide race since 1994 is a long record of futility.
    — Dallas News, 1 Mar. 2021
  • Jorge Soler will put an end to that streak of futility in 2024.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 26 Mar. 2024
  • But how? Bryant filed a grievance against the Cubs over his service-time issue and lost the case, proving the futility of the process.
    — Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 1 Dec. 2020
  • The Browns, after years of futility, reached the playoffs last season and even won a game there.
    — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Oct. 2021
  • Both are franchise records for futility and were set in this game.
    — David Moore, Dallas News, 27 Dec. 2020
  • But the Phillies’ futility stands out as a mini-slump at the worst possible time.
    — Photographs By Doug Mills, New York Times, 4 Nov. 2022
  • Oakland has not endured such a streak of futility against one team in more than a decade.
    — Matt Kawahara, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Sep. 2021
  • The program’s problems run deeper than its decade-long run of futility on the court.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 25 Feb. 2021
  • First of all, there’s the eye-popping futility in shot-making.
    — Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 26 Apr. 2022
  • But hanging over the narrative is a sense of futility, that this can and will happen again and again.
    — Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2024
  • However, the point will have been made about the futility, not to say the idiocy, of age denial.
    — Washington Post, 28 June 2021
  • This went on forever, the slow creep of futility spreading over the event like a blanket.
    — Tom Scharpling, Vulture, 12 July 2021
  • The thought of this filled me with a sense of futility: my robot could take on any topic, fill any assignment.
    — Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 11 July 2023
  • What’s on her mind these days is the freedom of second acts, the power of forgiveness and the futility of judgment.
    — Helena Andrews-Dyer, Washington Post, 13 July 2024
  • The Volunteers are trying to end two decades of futility in Gainesville.
    — Creg Stephenson | [email protected], al, 16 Sep. 2023
  • The randomness of teams week-to-week and play-to-play make predictions a practice in futility.
    — Scott Horner, The Indianapolis Star, 27 Sep. 2022
  • But her downbeat tone laid bare the sense of futility felt by Western leaders about Afghanistan.
    — New York Times, 24 Aug. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'futility.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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