useless
/ˈjus.ləs/adjective
useless is spelled U-S-E-L-E-S-S. The wrong spelling people search most is usless: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 18 of all searches for the word. Useless is an adjective meaning “Without use or the possibility to be used”.
How many letters and syllables are in useless?
| Letters | 7: U-S-E-L-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 17 times per million words; the 4,934th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, usless, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell useless?
Useless is spelled U-S-E-L-E-S-S. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 18 of the searches for useless in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is useless?
Useless appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce useless?
- UK /ˈjuːs.ləs/
- British /ˈjʉws.ləs/
- US /ˈjus.ləs/
Useless has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-useless.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of useless
- more useless comparative
- uselesser comparative
- most useless superlative
- uselessest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does useless mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Without use or the possibility to be used.
This fork's prongs are bent. It's useless now.
- 2
Unhelpful, not useful; pointless (of an action).
I think it's useless to keep this discussion going. It's like talking to a brick wall.
- 3
derogatoryGood-for-nothing; not dependable.
Bill never mows the lawn, takes out the trash or anything. He's useless, but I love him anyways.
- 4
colloquialderogatoryOf a person, Unable to do well at a particular task or endeavor.
My brother is useless at most computer games, but he is an awesome PS2 player.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Useless in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | inutile, inutilisable , bon à rien |
| German | nutzlos, unnützlich, unnütz, wertlos, sinnlos |
| Portuguese | inútil, imprestável , péssimo |
| Spanish | inútil , negado |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does useless come from?
From use + -less.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).