Meaning & use
utility bill
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A regular statement of how much you owe for a basic home service such as electricity, gas, water or the internet.
Grammar: Takes a: pay a utility bill; the plural is utility bills.
Patterns
- pay a utility bill
- a utility bill for something
The bank asked for a recent utility bill as proof of her address.
Our utility bill went up sharply during the cold winter.
He pays every utility bill online on the first of the month.
Word forms
| plural | utility bills |
|---|
Common combinations
- pay a utility bill
- She pays each utility bill on the day it arrives.
- monthly utility bill
- Our monthly utility bill includes water and gas.
- high utility bill
- A broken heater caused a high utility bill.
- split the utility bills
- The roommates split the utility bills evenly.
- proof of address
- A utility bill counts as proof of address.
- cut your utility bills
- New windows helped us cut our utility bills.
Synonyms and how they differ
- household bill
- Household bill is wider and can include rent or insurance, while utility bill covers basic services only.
- energy bill
- Energy bill is narrower and means only electricity and gas, whereas utility bill can include water and internet.
- invoice
- An invoice is a bill sent by a business to another business or customer for goods or work, so it sounds more formal than utility bill.
- statement
- A statement lists charges over a period and is not limited to utilities, unlike utility bill.
Word family
Commonly confused: utility bill or invoice?
utility bill vs invoice
An invoice is a business document requesting payment for goods or services, whereas a utility bill is the household statement for basic services.
Practice
The landlord said the rent was included, but we still pay our own ___ for electricity and water.
Choose one answer.
A statement for electricity and water is a utility bill. The other options do not name a bill for home services.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “utility bill”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.