Thesaurus: utility

Related headwords

Definitions

1. n. 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.
2. n. Adaptation to satisfy the desires or wants; intrinsic value. See Note under Value, 2.
3. n. Happiness; the greatest good, or happiness, of the greatest number, -- the foundation of utilitarianism.
4. adj. used of beef; usable but inferior
5. adj. capable of substituting in any of several positions on a team
6. n. a company that performs a public service; subject to government regulation
7. n. the quality of being of practical use
8. n. the service (electric power or water or transportation) provided by a public utility
9. n. (economics) a measure that is to be maximized in any situation involving choice
10. n. (computer science) a program designed for general support of the processes of a computer
11. n. 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
12. 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. Macaulay. 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. F. A. Walker. 3. Happiness; the greatest good, or happiness, of the greatest number, -- the foundation of utilitarianism. J. S. Mill. Syn. -- 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.