Futile means doomed before you start. Bailing out a sinking boat with a teacup, arguing with a parking machine, sending a fifth email to a company that has never answered one.
Futile describes efforts, not objects: a futile attempt, a futile gesture, futile resistance. It also works in the pattern 'it is futile to do something' — it was futile to argue with him once he had the map out. The noun is futility, and it carries the sadness the adjective only hints at: the futility of the whole war. Futile is stronger than pointless, because the wasted effort is inside the word — you tried, and it was never going to work. Keep it for things that were attempted; a stone lying in a field is not futile.
1adjectivefutileCertain to fail, however much effort goes into it.
“Their futile attempts to restart the engine went on for an hour.”
2adjectiveemptyEmpty of purpose or value.
“He spoke of a futile life spent waiting for a promotion that never came.”
Also accepted in games: pointless, useless
Futile came into English from Middle French futile, which had taken it from Latin fūtilis. The Latin shape survived almost intact — fūtilis to futile, four letters shorter. Further back the trail runs to the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰew-.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰew-
Latin
fūtilis
Middle French
futile
English, today
futile
Middle French futile, from Latin fūtilis.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA