Atelic

Definition: not having a purpose; undefined

This comes from the Greek “telos” which means “end” or “goal” or “purpose.”

If you remove the “a” prefix, you get “telic” which means an activity which has a purpose.

This is the same root we get “teleological” from, which is the argument that the world was created from an intelligent design with a purpose in mind.

Why I Looked It Up

From How to Know a Person:

…he was heading toward the age of forty when he first began to feel a creeping sense of emptiness, which he would later come to understand as the result of living a project-driven life, crammed not with atelic activities, but telic ones, the primary purpose of which was to have them done, and to have achieved certain outcomes.