Meaning & use
utilization
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Meaning
noununcountable
The way something, especially a resource or piece of equipment, is put to work, or the fact of making good practical use of it.
Grammar: Usually has no plural: the utilization of space, not three utilizations.
Patterns
- the utilization of something
- utilization rate
The clinic improved its utilization of operating rooms by scheduling surgeries more tightly.
Poor utilization of the warehouse meant half the shelves sat empty.
Managers tracked the utilization of each machine to decide which ones to replace.
Word forms
| plural | utilizations |
|---|
Common combinations
- efficient utilization
- Efficient utilization of staff hours cut the project's cost.
- maximize utilization
- The airline wants to maximize utilization of its newest planes.
- utilization rate
- The gym's utilization rate drops sharply in summer.
- resource utilization
- Cloud tools let teams monitor resource utilization in real time.
- underutilization
- Underutilization of the lab equipment frustrated the researchers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- use
- Use is the plain everyday word, while utilization sounds more technical and often implies measuring how fully something is used.
- application
- Application stresses putting an idea or method to a particular purpose, whereas utilization is about drawing on a resource.
- exploitation
- Exploitation can sound negative or suggest taking unfair advantage, which utilization does not.
Opposites
Word family
- utilize verb
- to make use of something
- utility noun
- usefulness, or a public service such as water or power
- utilitarian adjective
- designed to be useful rather than attractive
- underutilized adjective
- not used as fully as it could be
Commonly confused: utilization or utility?
utilization vs utility
Utility means usefulness or a basic public service, while utilization is the act or degree of using something.
Practice
Which word best completes the sentence? The hospital reported low ____ of its new scanner, which was used only twice a week.
Choose one answer.
The noun utilization fits the gap and means how much the scanner was used. Utility means usefulness, so it does not describe how often it was used; utilize is a verb and utilitarian is an adjective.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “utilization”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.