Meaning & use
utile
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivecomparable
Having a practical use; serving a helpful purpose.
Grammar: Goes before a noun or after be: a utile tool, the design is utile.
Patterns
- utile for something
- be utile to someone
The committee valued designs that were utile as well as handsome.
A pocketknife is a utile object to keep in a camping kit.
He argued that philosophy should be utile to ordinary people.
Word forms
| comparative | more utile |
|---|---|
| superlative | most utile |
Common combinations
- utile object
- Each utile object in the museum had been used by farmers.
- utile art
- Utile art serves a function as well as pleasing the eye.
- utile knowledge
- The course offered utile knowledge for new managers.
- utile design
- The design was elegant and utile at once.
Synonyms and how they differ
- useful
- Useful is the everyday word, whereas utile is rare and bookish.
- practical
- Practical stresses being sensible in real situations, while utile simply points to serving a purpose.
- functional
- Functional focuses on working as intended and often implies a plain design.
- serviceable
- Serviceable suggests it does the job but is not especially good.
Opposites
Word family
- utility noun
- usefulness, or a public service such as electricity
- utilize verb
- to make use of
- utilitarian adjective
- designed to be useful rather than attractive
- utilization noun
- the act of using something
Commonly confused: utile or futile?
utile vs futile
Futile means pointless because it cannot succeed; utile means useful. They differ in meaning, and only the spelling is close.
Practice
Which word is the closest everyday equivalent of 'utile'?
Choose one answer.
Utile means serving a practical purpose, so 'useful' is its common equivalent. Fertile, fragile and hostile only rhyme with it.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “utile”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.