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Utility   /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.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Utility" Quotes from Famous Books



... are constantly recruited from the army, the navy, and the bar; why should not the family of that man, whose name is imperishably connected with the steam-engine, be enrolled amongst the nobility of his country? In utility and profit, not merely to that country, but to the human race, his deeds may proudly claim comparison even with the most splendid of those achieved by classes so rich in glorious recollections. An objection, in ...
— Decline of Science in England • Charles Babbage
... quarters of the city. It is understood that lack of funds alone prevents the institution from entering on this wider field. When one considers the liberal and too often indiscriminate charities of the metropolis, and reflects that the need and utility of this excellent enterprise have been demonstrated, it seems impossible that pecuniary obstacles will long be allowed to stand in the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, December, 1885 • Various
... insists on its minute vagaries in dress not always with an eye to utility and an explorer in the polar regions is a very fastidious person, expending a vast amount of care on his attire, but with the sole idea of comfort, warmth, and usefulness. The clothes he wears are many and often cumbersome, ...
— The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson
... who lay silently listening to all that was said, was the only one who looked upon the scheme at all in the light of real utility, but I think that even with him the fun of the matter outweighed the serious part of ...
— Men of Iron • Ernie Howard Pyle
... organizations as the Ethical Culture Society and the Free Synagogue. We must find, or create, a system of membership which shall accurately and fully represent the spiritual idealism of this church, as well as practical utility, at its best; and this is a task calling at this moment not for action ...
— A Statement: On the Future of This Church • John Haynes Holmes


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