Meaning & use
usefulness
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Meanings
noununcountable
The quality of being able to help you do or achieve something.
Grammar: Uncountable, so no 'a usefulness' or plural: the usefulness of the tool, not 'a usefulness'.
Patterns
- the usefulness of something
- the usefulness of something for something
- something's usefulness as something
Nobody doubted the usefulness of a good map on the hike.
The usefulness of the app depends on how often you travel.
Over time, the old printer outlived its usefulness.
noununcountable
The practical value of a thing, idea or person to a group or situation.
Grammar: Often used with possessives or 'to': his usefulness to the team.
Patterns
- usefulness to someone
- prove your usefulness
The new volunteer quickly proved her usefulness to the charity.
Researchers measured the usefulness of the training to new staff.
The coach praised the striker's usefulness in defence as well as attack.
Common combinations
- outlive its usefulness
- The old filing system has outlived its usefulness.
- practical usefulness
- The book's practical usefulness is its greatest strength.
- limited usefulness
- A phone without data is of limited usefulness abroad.
- demonstrate the usefulness of
- The experiment demonstrated the usefulness of simple tools.
- question the usefulness of
- Some parents question the usefulness of daily homework.
Synonyms and how they differ
- utility
- Utility is more formal and technical, often used in economics or about public services, while usefulness is plain and everyday.
- value
- Value is broader and can include money or importance, whereas usefulness focuses on being practical.
- helpfulness
- Helpfulness usually describes the kindness of a person or a piece of advice, while usefulness suits objects and methods too.
- practicality
- Practicality stresses how easy something is to use in real conditions, not just whether it helps.
Opposites
Word family
- use noun
- the act of employing something
- useful adjective
- able to help you do something
- usefully adverb
- in a helpful way
- useless adjective
- having no practical value
- uselessness noun
- the quality of having no value
Commonly confused: usefulness or utility?
usefulness vs utility
Utility is a more formal word; it can also mean a public service such as water or electricity, which usefulness never does.
Practice
After ten years of heavy use, the old laptop had finally outlived its ______.
Choose one answer.
After 'its' you need a noun, and usefulness is the noun form. Useful is an adjective and usefully is an adverb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “usefulness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.