fruitlessly.

Without obtaining the useful result being sought.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• fruitlessly search
• fruitlessly attempt

On the page

The team fruitlessly searched the surviving index for a record it did not contain.

He fruitlessly attempted to resolve the dispute by restating the original terms.

Usage notes

Primary category: analysis / argumentation / evidence. Forms: Invariable adverb; use more or most only where natural. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: effect assessment, evidence qualification, conditional reasoning, method comparison. Disciplines: argumentation, research interpretation, analytical writing. Commonness: moderately common.