Utility \U*til"i*ty\, n. [OE. utilite, F. utilit['e], L.
utilitas, fr. utilis useful. See Utile.]
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
The utility of the enterprises was, however, so
great and obvious that all opposition proved
useless. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Polit. Econ.) Adaptation to satisfy the desires or wants;
intrinsic value. See Note under Value, 2.
[1913 Webster]
Value in use is utility, and nothing else, and in
political economy should be called by that name and
no other. --F. A.
Walker.
[1913 Webster]
3. Happiness; the greatest good, or happiness, of the
greatest number, -- the foundation of utilitarianism. --J.
S. Mill.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Usefulness; advantageous; benefit; profit; avail;
service.
Usage: 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.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
utility
adj 1: used of beef; usable but inferior [syn: utility(a), utility-grade]
2: capable of substituting in any of several positions on a
team; "a utility infielder" [syn: utility(a), substitute(a)]
n 1: a company that performs a public service; subject to
government regulation [syn: public utility, public-service
corporation]
2: the quality of being of practical use [syn: usefulness]
[ant: inutility, inutility]
3: the service provided by a utility company; "the cost of
utilities never decreases"
4: (economics) a measure that is to be maximized in any
situation involving choice
5: (computer science) a program designed for general support of
the processes of a computer; "a computer system provides
utility programs to perform the tasks needed by most
users" [syn: utility program, service program]
6: a facility composed of one or more pieces of equipment
connected to or part of a structure and designed to
provide a service such as heat or electricity or water or
sewage disposal; "the price of the house included all
utilities"
WordNet (r) 2.0
102 Moby Thesaurus words for "utility":
Aktiengesellschaft, account, advantage, advantageousness,
aktiebolag, alternate, alternative, appliance, applicability,
appropriateness, availability, backup, beneficialness,
body corporate, business, business establishment, cartel,
chamber of commerce, combine, commercial enterprise, compagnie,
company, concern, conglomerate, conglomerate corporation,
consolidating company, consortium, convenience, copartnership,
corporate body, corporation, counterfeit, diversified corporation,
drive, dummy, effectiveness, efficacy, efficiency, engine,
enginery, enterprise, equivalent, ersatz, facility, fake,
favorableness, firm, fitness, fixture, functionality, helpfulness,
holding company, house, imitation, industry,
joint-stock association, joint-stock company, machine, machinery,
makeshift, mechanical aid, mechanical device, mechanism, mock,
motive power, motor, operability, operating company, partnership,
phony, pinch, plunderbund, pool, power plant, power source,
practicability, practical utility, practicality, profitability,
provisional, proxy, public utility, relevance, reserve, secondary,
service, serviceability, spare, stock company, stopgap, substitute,
syndicate, temporary, tentative, token, trade association, trust,
usability, use, usefulness, utilizability, vicarious
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
public utility, public-service corporation, service program, substitute(a), usefulness, utility program, utility(a), utility-grade
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