different between futility vs pointlessness

English

Etymology

futile +? -ity

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?l?ti

Noun

futility (usually uncountable, plural futilities)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being futile or useless.

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

2. (countable) Something, especially an act, that is futile.
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, chapter XIII, Democracy

     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. (uncountable) Unimportance.

Translations

English

Etymology

pointless +? -ness

Pronunciation

Noun

pointlessness (countable and uncountable, plural pointlessnesses)

1. (countable) The lack of meaning, purpose, or ideas; the characteristic or condition of being pointless.

   The pointlessness of the discussion only compounded her boredom.

2. (topology, geometry, uncountable) The quality of not mentioning points.

Translations

References

• Pointless topology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Gerla, G., 1995, "Pointless Geometries" in Buekenhout, F., Kantor, W. eds., Handbook of incidence geometry: buildings and foundations. North-Holland: 1015-31.