Synonyms and antonyms of useless in English

useless

These are words and phrases related to useless. Click on any word or phrase to go to its thesaurus page. Or, go to the definition of useless.

BAD AT SOMETHING

He’s useless at maths.

Synonyms and examples

bad at
I was overweight and bad at sport.
hopeless
I’m completely hopeless in the kitchen.
rubbish
UK informal
She’s a pretty rubbish singer, really.
incompetent
The rules have made it hard to remove incompetent teachers.
inept
He is a woefully inept communicator.
inexpert
He is an enthusiastic if inexpert dancer.
weak
These students are weak in some aspects of language use.
unskilled
There is a shortage of both skilled and unskilled workers.
amateurish
disapproving
Her first efforts at writing were amateurish to say the least.

Antonym and example

good at
I'm good at playing cards.

See words related to useless

Learn more
Bad weather, conditions, situations, etc. are unpleasant and cause difficulties or harm. You can describe a person who behaves in a way that is morally wrong, or a morally wrong action, as a bad person, action, etc. Something that is of bad quality is of a low or unacceptable standard. If someone is bad at something, they lack skill in that doing something.

USELESS

We have cleared out carloads of useless junk.

Synonyms and examples

no use
Money is no use if it's just sitting there.
serve no purpose
Such warnings serve no purpose other than to scare the public.
pointless
She sees cleaning as a pointless exercise since everything is going to get dirty again.
worthless
The majority of objects in the exhibition are worthless junk.
meaningless
Polls are meaningless this early on in an election campaign.
futile
She had made several futile attempts to lose weight.
unhelpful
I wish he would keep his unhelpful comments to himself.
ineffectual
formal
He made an ineffectual attempt to regain his throne.
inefficient
Traditional irrigation systems are inefficient because they waste a third of the water they spray on fields.
impractical
Why is she wearing such impractical high-heeled shoes?

Antonym and example

useful
The website has a lot of useful information.
Learn more
If someone or something is useless, they do not help you in any way.
Cambridge English Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press

useless | American Thesaurus

useless

adjective
These are words and phrases related to useless. Click on any word or phrase to go to its thesaurus page. Or, go to the definition of useless.
Synonyms for useless from Random House Roget's College Thesaurus, Revised and Updated Edition © 2000 Random House, Inc.

Word of the Day

under the weather

If someone is or feels under the weather, they feel ill.

About this
has been added to list
Follow us
Choose a dictionary
  • Recent and Recommended
  • Definitions
    Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English
    English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
  • Grammar and thesaurus
    Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English
    Grammar Thesaurus
  • Pronunciation
    British and American pronunciations with audio
    English Pronunciation
  • Translation
    Click on the arrows to change the translation direction.
    Bilingual Dictionaries
    • English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
    • English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
    • English–Danish Danish–English
    • English–Dutch Dutch–English
    • English–French French–English
    • English–German German–English
    • English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
    • English–Italian Italian–English
    • English–Japanese Japanese–English
    • English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
    • English–Polish Polish–English
    • English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
    • English–Spanish Spanish–English
    • English–Swedish Swedish–English
    Semi-bilingual Dictionaries
    English–Arabic English–Bengali English–Catalan English–Czech English–Gujarati English–Hindi English–Korean English–Malay English–Marathi English–Russian English–Tamil English–Telugu English–Thai English–Turkish English–Ukrainian English–Urdu English–Vietnamese
  • Dictionary +Plus
    Word Lists
Contents
Cambridge Thesaurus American Thesaurus
My word lists

To add ${headword} to a word list please sign up or log in.

Sign up or Log in
My word lists

Add ${headword} to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

5 && !stateSidebarWordList.expended) ? 195 : (stateSidebarWordListItems.length * 39)" [src]="stateSidebarWordListItems">
5 && !stateSidebarWordList.expended) ? 'hao hp lmt-25' : 'hdn'">
More
Go to your word lists
Tell us about this example sentence: