1.
feeling of futility; sense of wasted effort
The emotional sense that one's efforts were pointless or produced no meaningful result.
何をしても徒労感しか残らない。
No matter what I do, all that remains is a feeling of futility.
長時間働いたのに成果が出ず、強い徒労感に襲われた。
I worked long hours but got no results, and was struck by a strong sense of futility.
何度説明しても相手に伝わらず、徒労感を覚えた。
No matter how many times I explained, the other person didn't understand, and I felt a sense of wasted effort.
A compound of 徒労 (futile effort, wasted labor) and 感 (feeling, sense). Expresses the emotional weight of having put in effort that came to nothing — heavier and more literary than simply saying 無駄だった (it was pointless).
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 徒労感を覚える: to feel a sense of futility
- 徒労感に襲われる: to be struck by a sense of futility
- 徒労感が残る: a feeling of futility remains
- 深い徒労感: deep sense of futility
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 虚しさ: emptiness; a broader feeling of meaninglessness
- 徒労: wasted effort (the objective fact, without the emotional component)
- 脱力感: feeling of exhaustion/lethargy — physical rather than emotional