worthless

[wurth-lis]

adjective

1. without worth; of no use, importance, or value; good-for-nothing.

   a worthless person; a worthless contract.

worthless

/ ˈwɜːθlɪs /

adjective

1. without practical value or usefulness

2. without merit; good-for-nothing

Other Word Forms

• worthlessness noun
• worthlessly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of worthless¹

First recorded in 1580–90; worth ¹ + -less

Example Sentences

Our culture teaches us that disappearing into another person’s heart is what “love” means, and women, especially, are taught not only to seek this kind of extreme attachment, but that they are worthless without it.

From Los Angeles Times

And a traditional standard of excellence now is an endangered species: the .300 batting average, a popular and easily understood statistic that has been devalued and rendered borderline worthless by baseball’s analytical revolution.

From Los Angeles Times

Palace last played in Europe 27 years ago, but that was the Intertoto Cup, a competition that was dubbed 'The Cup for the Cupless' and largely perceived as worthless by British sides.

From BBC

Auggie created Peacemaker, in no small part, by drilling it into him that he’s worthless.

From Salon

Buried in this vast terrain is a massive pit, full of what looks like mounds of worthless dirt.

From BBC

Related Words

• barren 
• bogus 
• futile 
• inconsequential 
• ineffective 
• insignificant 
• meaningless 
• mediocre 
• pointless 
• unimportant 
• unproductive 
• unprofitable 
• unusable 
• useless