Useless means it helps with nothing at all. A pen with no ink, an umbrella in a sideways wind, a phone on two per cent with the charger at home.
It is stronger than not very useful; useless is the end of the line. Said of a person it becomes an insult, though a mild everyday one in British English: I'm useless at maths, he was useless in the crisis. It also means pointless in front of an -ing form or an infinitive, as in it is useless arguing with him, or useless to pretend now. Note that the opposite is useful, not usable: something usable can be used, something useful is worth using.
1adjectiveuselessOf no use at all; helping with nothing.~96%
“The map was useless once we left the main road.”
synonyms: worthless, ineffective
2adjectivepointlessPointless; not worth doing.~2%
“It is useless trying to talk to him before coffee.”
3adjectivehopelessHopeless at doing something.~2%
“I am useless at remembering names.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 9 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Old French
us
Middle English
use
English
use
English, today
useless
Built from
From use + -less. use comes from Middle English use, from Old French us. Middle English use, from Old French us, from Latin ūsus (“use, custom, skill, habit”), from past participle stem of ūtor (“use”). Displaced native Middle English note (“use”) (see note) from Old English notu; Middle English nutte (“use”) from Old English nytt; as well as Old English fricu and Old English sidu.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA