UTILITY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Utility

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/jutˈɪləti/ Listen

noun

Utility n.

1.

The quality or state of being useful; usefulness; production of good; profitableness to some valuable end; as, the utility of manure upon land; the utility of the sciences; the utility of medicines. "The utility of the enterprises was, however, so great and obvious that all opposition proved useless."

2.

(Polit. Econ.) Adaptation to satisfy the desires or wants; intrinsic value. See Note under Value, 2. "Value in use is utility, and nothing else, and in political economy should be called by that name and no other."

3.

Happiness; the greatest good, or happiness, of the greatest number, the foundation of utilitarianism.

Synonyms: Usefulness; advantageous; benefit; profit; avail; service. Utility, Usefulness. Usefulness has an Anglo-Saxon prefix, utility is Latin; and hence the former is used chiefly of things in the concrete, while the latter is employed more in a general and abstract sense. Thus, we speak of the utility of an invention, and the usefulness of the thing invented; of the utility of an institution, and the usefulness of an individual. So beauty and utility (not usefulness) are brought into comparison. Still, the words are often used interchangeably.

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Etymology of 'Utility'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Utility" Quotes from Famous Books

... seen with the Russians. They are not so modern in method as the French or Germans, or even the Japanese. Of course, war is the same. The nation at the end will win on the fields, not in the skies. The sky fulfillment is reserved for a better utility than war. But war belongs under the sea.... You will not be suppressed so rigidly with the Russians. You will see the side of the war which will have the most bearing on the future. I do not believe France and Germany are in the ...

— Red Fleece • Will Levington Comfort

... from the parks in that they are established for utility rather than for pleasure. The forests now existing are to be cared for by the government and to be wisely used when lumber is needed. Fires are to be avoided so far as possible, and burned areas are to be replanted with ...

— The Western United States - A Geographical Reader • Harold Wellman Fairbanks

... began to look about him for a wife, and his marriage with the second daughter of M. de Savoie (younger sister of Madame de Bourgogne) was decided upon as an alliance of much honour and importance to M. de Savoie, and, by binding him to her interest, of much utility to France. An extraordinary ambassador (Homodei, brother of the Cardinal of that name) was sent to Turin to sign the contract of marriage, and bring back the new Queen into Spain. He was also appointed her Ecuyer, and the Princesse des Ursins was selected as her 'Camarera Mayor', a very ...

— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... news, I hope we will soon have peace re-established, to our great satisfaction: which, as it's a thing long expected and wished for, will be for the utility of the whole nation; especially to poor me, that has my all engaged,—fond to hear news, and yet ...

— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume III. • Mrs. Thomson

... not attempt; and if he strikes out new things, that is still worse. He is fair game for every body's criticism. He builds too high for one, too low for another; is too ornate for this, too plain for that; he sacrifices utility to aesthetics, or aesthetics to utility, and somebody is displeased either way. The duchess has been a sympathizing friend of the architect through this arduous ordeal. She took pleasure and pride in his work, and showed it to me as something in which she ...

— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe

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