Utility
[juːˈtɪləti] or [ju'tɪləti]
Definition
(noun.) the service (electric power or water or transportation) provided by a public utility; 'the cost of utilities never decreases'; 'all the utilities were lost after the hurricane'.
(noun.) 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'.
(noun.) the quality of being of practical use.
(noun.) a company that performs a public service; subject to government regulation.
(noun.) (economics) a measure that is to be maximized in any situation involving choice.
(adj.) capable of substituting in any of several positions on a team; 'a utility infielder' .
(adj.) used of beef; usable but inferior .
Typist: Marietta--From WordNet
Definition
(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.
(n.) Adaptation to satisfy the desires or wants; intrinsic value. See Note under Value, 2.
(n.) Happiness; the greatest good, or happiness, of the greatest number, -- the foundation of utilitarianism.
Checker: Percy
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Usefulness (in an abstract sense), advantageousness, benefit, avail, profit, service, use.
Checked by Aurora
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Usefulness, benefit, profit, advantage, advantageousness, service,[SeeADVANTAGE]
Typist: Oliver
Examples
- The great and general utility of the banking trade, when prudently managed, has been fully explained in the second book of this Inquiry. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- McCormick, of Virginia, and Obed Hussey, of Maryland, were the men who brought the reaper to a condition of practical utility. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- So far as to the utility, which may attend any quality of the body. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- The institution soon manifested its utility; was imitated by other towns and in other provinces. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Health, wealth, efficiency, sociability, utility, culture, happiness itself are only abstract terms which sum up a multitude of particulars. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The ingenuity and utility of this system are indisputable. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- The utility element is found in the motives assigned for the study, the liberal element in methods of teaching. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Of these I was the eldest, and the destined successor to all his labours and utility. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Now the question is, after what manner this utility and importance operate upon us? David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Perceiving of what great utility such an instrument would prove in naval and military operations, and seeing that His Serenity the Doge desired to possess it, I resolved on the 24th inst. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Natural science is recommended on the ground of its practical utility, but is taught as a special accomplishment in removal from application. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Of the segregations of educational values discussed in the last chapter, that between culture and utility is probably the most fundamental. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- With regard to the utility of this discovery the court would deem it a waste of time to dwell long upon this topic. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- We unavoidably lose sight of the principle of utility, just in that action of our lives in which we have the most need of it. Plato. The Republic.
- Public utility, however, and not revenue, was the original object of this institution. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Public utilities were in the making, and no one in particular had a keen sense of what was right or what was wrong, in the hard, practical details of their development. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
Edited by Johanna