futility

noun

Etymology: From Latin fūtilitās (“worthlessness, futility”). By surface analysis, futile + -ity.

1. The quality of being futile or useless.

   “an exercise of futility”

   “His taking the bar exam for a third time was pure futility.”

2. Something, especially an act, that is futile.

   “But fashion and authority apart, and bringing Plato to the test of reason, take from him, his sophisms, futilities, and incomprehensibilities, and what remains?”

   “No man oppresses thee, can bid thee fetch or carry, come or go, without reason shewn. […] No man, wiser, unwiser, can make thee come or go: but thy own futilities, bewilderments, thy false appetites for Money, Windsor Georges and such like?”

3. Unimportance.

   “Her empty chatter, her futility, her childish coquetry and frivolity—such light wares could hardly be the whole substance of any woman’s being; […]”