Synonyms for abortive
- adjective
Most common
All synonyms
Adjective
1. Unsuccessful — coming to nothing; failing in its effect.
unsuccessful, fruitless, useless, futile, ineffectual, vain, ineffective, unprofitable, unavailing, sterile, idle, bootless, profitless, unfruitful, unproductive, barren, nugatory, otiose, inefficacious
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Coming to nothing; failing in its effect. .
Related words
- Word family
- abortiveness abortivity
Choose the right word
That which is bootless, fruitless, or profitless fails to accomplish any valuable result; that which is abortive, ineffectual, or unavailing fails to accomplish a result that it was, or was supposed to be, adapted to accomplish.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- unsuccessful The attempts were for the most part unsuccessful.
- futile When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
- fruitless After three fruitless attempts, he tried one last time.
- ineffectual My efforts seemed ineffectual.
- obsolete For all practical purposes, that word is obsolete.
- addle The fumes of the wine were mounting steadily to addle his indifferent brains.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| abortive | falling | |
| unsuccessful | falling | |
| futile | steady | |
| fruitless | steady | |
| ineffectual | steady | |
| obsolete | falling |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- vain1, idle2
- 5 letters
- addle2
- 6 letters
- futile2, barren2, otiose3
- 7 letters
- useless2, sterile2
- 8 letters
- immature3, obsolete3, bootless, nugatory4
- 9 letters
- fruitless2
- 10 letters
- unfruitful, unavailing4, profitless
- 11 letters
- ineffective4, ineffectual5
- 12 letters
- unsuccessful4, unproductive4, unprofitable5
- 13 letters
- inefficacious
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (idle2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- abortif
- Deutsch
- vergeblich