Meaning & use
utility
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Meanings
noununcountableformal
The quality of being useful or practical.
Grammar: Uncountable and formal: a tool of great utility.
Patterns
- the utility of something
The utility of the app is limited without internet.
They questioned the utility of another meeting.
The device has little practical utility.
nouncountable
A service such as electricity, gas or water that homes and businesses use, or a company that supplies it.
Grammar: Often plural for the services: pay the utilities; singular for a company: the utility raised prices.
Patterns
- utility bill
- utility company
The rent includes all utilities.
The local utility cut off power after the storm.
Utility bills rise in the winter.
nouncountablecomputing
A small computer program that does a specific helpful task.
Grammar: Countable: a disk utility.
She installed a utility to clean up the hard drive.
This free utility can recover deleted files.
noununcountabletechnicalbusiness
In economics, the satisfaction a person gets from using a good or service.
Grammar: Technical and uncountable: marginal utility.
Economists measure the utility consumers get from a product.
The second slice of cake gave less utility than the first.
Word forms
| plural | utilities |
|---|
Common combinations
- utility bill
- The utility bill came to more than I expected.
- public utility
- Water is supplied by a public utility.
- utility company
- The utility company repaired the power line.
- utility room
- The washing machine is in the utility room.
- practical utility
- The gadget has no practical utility.
Synonyms and how they differ
- usefulness
- Usefulness is the ordinary word, while utility is more formal and technical.
- function
- Function is the specific job something does, while utility is about how helpful it is.
- service
- Service is the broader word, and a utility is a specific essential service.
Opposites
Word family
- utilize verb
- to make use of something
- utilitarian adjective
- designed to be practical rather than attractive
- utilization noun
- the act of using something
- utilities noun
- basic services such as water and power
Commonly confused: utility or utilization?
utility vs utilization
Utilization is the act of using something, while utility is the quality of being useful or a public service.
Practice
The rent for the apartment includes water, gas and electricity, so there are no separate ___ to pay.
Choose one answer.
Water, gas and electricity are utilities. Amenities and facilities are comforts and available features, and utensils are kitchen tools.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “utility”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.