Meaning & use
usage
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The way in which people actually use words and phrases in speaking and writing, including what is accepted as correct.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: modern usage, not a modern usage.
Patterns
- in common usage
- the usage of a word
In everyday usage, the word literally is often used for emphasis.
The editor checked each sentence against standard usage before printing.
Dictionaries record changes in usage as new meanings spread.
noununcountable
The amount of something that is used, or the act of using it.
Grammar: Takes no article and often follows a noun: water usage, data usage.
Patterns
- usage of something
- heavy usage
Our household's water usage dropped after we fixed the leaking tap.
The phone plan charges extra for data usage above ten gigabytes.
Heavy usage wore a path across the lawn.
nouncountableformal
An established habit or custom that has developed over time within a community or field.
Grammar: In this older sense it can be countable: the usages of the court.
Patterns
- a usage of something
Local usage required visitors to remove their shoes at the door.
The ceremony follows ancient usages that few people understand now.
Business usage in that industry favors written contracts.
Word forms
| plural | usages |
|---|
Common combinations
- common usage
- This spelling is in common usage across the country.
- English usage
- She keeps a guide to English usage beside her desk.
- heavy usage
- The machines show signs of heavy usage.
- energy usage
- Smart meters help families track their energy usage.
- correct usage
- The teacher explained the correct usage of the semicolon.
- modern usage
- In modern usage the word has lost its negative flavor.
Synonyms and how they differ
- use
- Use is the simpler, everyday noun, while usage sounds more formal and often suggests a pattern or total amount rather than one act.
- consumption
- Consumption fits things that are used up, like electricity or food, while usage can also describe how words or tools are employed.
- custom
- Custom points to a social tradition people follow, whereas usage often concerns language or repeated practice.
- practice
- Practice means how something is regularly done, but it does not carry usage's link to words and their accepted forms.
Word family
Commonly confused: usage or use?
usage vs use
Use is the ordinary word for a single act of using, so write 'the use of a hammer' rather than 'the usage of a hammer' unless you mean a general pattern.
Practice
A dictionary editor says the word has changed in ___ over the last fifty years, so the old definition is out of date.
Choose one answer.
Usage describes how people actually use a word. Utility means usefulness, which does not suit a word changing over time.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “usage”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.