The spectators exulted pointlessly (5)
I believe the answer is:
crowd
'the spectators' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
I can't explain the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for crowd that I've seen before include "assembly" , "See 1" , "Flock" , "Large group of people" , "Multitude" .)