Meaning & use
useful
Last updated
UK/ˈjuːsfəl/
US/ˈjuːsfəl/
Meaning
adjectivecomparable
Able to help you do a task, solve a problem, or get a result you want.
Grammar: Used before nouns and after linking verbs: a useful app, the app is useful.
Patterns
- useful for something
- useful for doing something
- useful to someone
- prove useful
A small flashlight is useful during a power cut.
These notes were useful for reviewing before the exam.
The guide is useful to visitors who do not speak the local language.
Word forms
| comparative | more useful |
|---|---|
| superlative | most useful |
Common combinations
- useful information
- The website gives useful information about train times.
- useful for doing something
- A calculator is useful for checking long division.
- prove useful
- The extra blanket proved useful on the cold night.
- useful to someone
- Her experience was useful to the new team.
Synonyms and how they differ
- handy
- Handy suggests convenient for a small immediate need, while useful is broader and can be serious or long-term.
- practical
- Practical stresses that something works well in real situations; useful stresses that it gives benefit.
- beneficial
- Beneficial is more formal and often describes health, effects, or outcomes rather than objects.
Opposites
Word family
- use verb
- to employ something for a purpose
- use noun
- the act of using or the purpose something serves
- usefulness noun
- the quality of being useful
- useless adjective
- not able to help or work effectively
Commonly confused: useful or valuable?
useful vs valuable
Valuable means worth a lot of money or very important; useful only means helpful for a purpose.
Practice
Choose the best sentence.
Choose one answer.
Useful for is followed by a noun or -ing form, so useful for finding fits. The other prepositions or verb forms do not follow this pattern.
Make it your own
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