Word

otiose \OH-shee-ohs; OH-tee-\, adjective:

Meaning

1. Ineffective; futile.

2. Being at leisure; lazy; indolent; idle.

3. Of no use.

Examples

Mr. Federspiel's surreal flourishes and commentaries straddle the line between interesting and otiose. Most of the surrealism is pretty but pointless.

--D. F. Wallace, "The Million-Dollar Tattoo," [1]New York Times, May 5, 1991

Although the wild outer movements and the angular Minuet can take such clockwork precision, the Andante, with its obsessive, claustrophobic dialogues between strings and bassoons, seemed sluggish and otiose.

--Tim Ashley, "VPO/Maazel," [2]The Guardian, April 16, 2002

The umlaut he affected, which made no difference to the pronunciation of his name, was as otiose as a pair of strategically positioned beauty spots.

--Peter Conrad, "Hidden shallows," [3]New Statesman, October 14, 2002

One hazard for religions in which all professional intermediaries are dispensed with, and in which the individual is enjoined to 'work out your own salvation' and is regarded as fully capable of doing so, is that belief and practice become independent of formal organized structures which may in such a context come to be perceived as otiose.

--Lorne L. Dawson, "The Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements: The Case of Soka Gakkai," [4]Sociology of Religion, Fall 2001

Extra

Otiose is from Latin otiosus, "idle, at leisure," from otium, "leisure."

Paragraph

Anything that is done half-heartedly eventually becomes otiose. Not only whatever time is spent on it goes waste, but also you have to start all over again. That takes up more time and hardly getting done anything. I think that it is an ideal rule to do anything wholeheartedly only even if it is something done against our will. If you feel that you really cannot do it wholeheartedly, it is best not to do it at all. It doesn’t make sense to waste time in doing something that would be as otiose as your heart is involved in it.