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Futile vs Furtive - What's the difference?

futile | furtive |

As adjectives the difference between futile and furtive

is that futile is incapable of producing results; useless; not successful; not worth attempting while furtive is stealthy.

futile

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Incapable of producing results; useless; not successful; not worth attempting.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or
  • *
  • *:There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 15, author=Marc Higginson, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Shamrock Rovers 0-4 Tottenham , passage=Goals from Steven Pienaar, Andros Townsend, Jermain Defoe and Harry Kane sealed the win, but Rubin Kazan's 1-1 draw against PAOK Salonika rendered Spurs' efforts futile .}}

    Synonyms

    * ineffectual * unavailing * vain * idle * fruitless * See also

    Antonyms

    * effectual * effective

    Related terms

    * futility * futilitarian

    furtive

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • stealthy
  • Exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy.
  • * 1949 , George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four , p31
    • But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control.

    Synonyms

    * (stealthy) surreptitious * See also

    Derived terms

    * furtively * furtiveness