What's the difference between pointless and useless?

Pointless


Definition:

  • (a.) Having no point; blunt; wanting keenness; obtuse; as, a pointless sword; a pointless remark.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The citizenship debate is tawdry, conflated and ultimately pointless | Richard Ackland Read more On Wednesday, the prime minister criticised lawyers for backing terrorists.
  • (2) It’s the same story over and over.” Children’s author Philip Ardagh , who told the room he once worked as an “unprofessional librarian” in Lewisham, said: “Closing down a library is like filing off the end of a swordfish’s nose: pointless.” 'Speak up before there's nothing left': authors rally for National Libraries Day Read more “Today proves that support for public libraries comes from all walks of life and it’s not rocket science to work out why.
  • (3) But now the document turns crazily surreal, like the pointless war itself.
  • (4) And David Ngog was a pointless signing too – one which puzzled us all.
  • (5) "It is pointless to think sovereign bond rates could be brought down for an extended period of time by outside interventions," said Draghi.
  • (6) They aren't pointless; apart from any craft they may teach, they can also offer connections and contacts – a "way in" – which is the modern essential of anyone trying to start a career.
  • (7) An Australian family that lost three children and a grandfather in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 has published an emotional tribute calling for an end to the “pointless war” in eastern Ukraine.
  • (8) People are criticising what we are doing as pointless and saying we won’t achieve anything, but history has shown us that is not the case,” student leader Joshua Wong told the crowd last week.
  • (9) It is pointless to go back over the missed opportunities, but an essential part of the design of this regional conference is that it should be able to be supported by Russia and China as well as the US.
  • (10) Hoodies don't vote, they've realised it's pointless, that whoever gets elected will just be a different shade of the "we don't give a toss about you" party.
  • (11) Bojórquez, the editor, says that for the moment the risks are manageable within his commitment to the idea that journalism is pointless unless it informs.
  • (12) The others are either infuriatingly vague (“An NHS with time to care”) or pointlessly catch-all (“A country where the next generation can do better than the last”).
  • (13) Especially when there’s no funeral to go to, just an endless stream of pointless review meetings.
  • (14) "If this doesn't bring down mortgage rates for 95% loans then the whole thing is completely pointless," he said.
  • (15) To express guarded optimism about the Greek deal is not to condone the provocative arrogance of former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis or the pointless vindictiveness of the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble .
  • (16) The PCC came under fire last week from the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, who branded its report on phone hacking at the News of the World "worse than pointless".
  • (17) 3 Don’t be afraid to talk about corruption Poverty overseas is often associated with corruption: 67% of the British public think that government corruption makes donating to reduce poverty “pointless” (up from 48% in 2008), according to research from Jennifer and David Hudson.
  • (18) But it's a pointless endeavour if the fundraising activity contributes to and compounds the culture in which our breasts are only relevant if they're being admired by someone else's eyes.
  • (19) Quibbling over whether fashion is more or less important than art is just as pointless as questioning whether or not it is art.
  • (20) Why should Paris or Berlin waste political capital - they have suspicious voters too - on concessions to Britain when it may all be pointless?

Useless


Definition:

  • (a.) Having, or being of, no use; unserviceable; producing no good end; answering no valuable purpose; not advancing the end proposed; unprofitable; ineffectual; as, a useless garment; useless pity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Theoretical findings on sterilization and disinfection measures are useless for the dental practice if their efficiency is put into question due to insufficient consideration of the special conditions of dental treatment.
  • (2) It’s useless if we try and fight with them through force, so we try and fight with them through humour.” “There is a saying that laughing is the best form of medicine.
  • (3) It also seems to be a bit useless as a way of gathering intelligence.
  • (4) It is concluded that the femoral stem should be as thick as possible and that the collar of the prosthesis is useless.
  • (5) The clorus water disinfecting conventional methods by many reasons are useless, even in urbanized cities.
  • (6) By now seemingly every print and online outlet has had a crack at explaining why the Sunday shows are so phenomenally useless.
  • (7) He added: "Why on earth is this useless Goverment pandering to Puffs?
  • (8) It’s great that the new Star Wars film is more diverse , with John Boyega and Daisy Ridley in significant roles; I am pleased to see everyone on #BoycottStarWarsVII gnash and whine uselessly.
  • (9) Inappropriate, useless and potentially harmful surgical diagnostic procedures are also avoided.
  • (10) However, under normal working conditions, taking into account the period of time which inevitably elapses between the patient feeling pain in the kidney and his reaching the Emergency Department and the necessary examinations being carried out which enable the correct diagnosis to be made, the number of hours which have passed make attempts at conservative surgery completely useless.
  • (11) However one should not ask for the impossible of the treatment of male infertility since the most optimal seminal analysis result is useless in the presence of a monophysic menstrual cycle in the partner.
  • (12) The endoscopic retrograde cholangiography is of greatest practical significance for the differential diagnosis of the cholestatic icterus: non-obstructed bile ducts exclude an extrahepatic icterus and render a laparotomy useless.
  • (13) If you have a regulator behaving this uselessly, I suspect MPs will start saying this is not regulation," he said.
  • (14) The importance of a diagnosis before surgery by cytopunction and drill-biopsy has to be emphasized, to prevent an useless mastectomy.
  • (15) In conclusion, excepted for pituitary deficiency, basal plasma TSH (IRMA) levels are accurate and sufficient in the evaluation of the thyroid function and make the TRH-test useless.
  • (16) (4) The annual vaccination campaigns since 1970 against FMD were useless because most of the primary outbreaks of FMD since then can be traced to the production or the application of vaccines.
  • (17) A hepatic lesion regarded as useless for the ultimate diagnosis was present in 16 cases (14.5 per cent).
  • (18) Talking this week to several, I heard the same story of exorbitant fees and shocking interest rates throttling real production, while Adair Turner's "socially useless" financial products attract limitless bubble credit.
  • (19) Clinical evaluation and laboratory tests are useless.
  • (20) The Chinese government is depicted as benevolent, while the US government manages to be both sinister and useless – typified by the black-clad CIA operatives, one of whom gets beaten up by a Chinese character.