READING  ダ
MEANING  burdensome
JLPT level N1 (full info & stroke order)
 
Words/compounds
むだ
futility, uselessness, pointlessness
だぶん
poor piece of writing, my poor writing
だめ, ダメ
no good, not serving its purpose, useless, broken, hopeless, wasted, in vain, purposeless, cannot, must not, not allowed
あしだ
high clogs, rain clogs
むだばなし
gossip, idle talk, chat
 
Example sentences
無駄
あの老人たちは街角に無駄話をしに行くのが好きだ。
The old men like to meet on the street corner just to shoot the bull.
 
皆、空理空論ばかり言って、時間の無駄だよ、この会議は。
This meeting is a waste of time. Everybody is just talking in vague theoretical terms.
駄文
私の駄文を見ていただきありがとうございます。
Thank you for looking at my poor scribblings.
駄目
去年はジョギングシューズを2足駄目にした。
I wore out two pairs of jogging shoes last year.
 
Lookalikes
 
タイ、タ、ふと-い、ふと-る 
thick
 
タ 
luxury