01 n. The quality or state of being useful; usefulness; production of good; profitableness to some valuable end; as, the utility of manure upon l…
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1.
The quality or state of being useful; usefulness; production of good; profitableness to some valuable end; as, the utility of manure upon land; the utility of the sciences; the utility of medicines.“The utility of the enterprises was, however, so great and obvious that all opposition proved useless.” — Macaulay.
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2.
Adaptation to satisfy the desires or wants; intrinsic value. See Note under Value, 2.(Polit. Econ.) See: Value“Value in use is utility, and nothing else, and in political economy should be called by that name and no other.” — F. A. Walker.
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3.
Happiness; the greatest good, or happiness, of the greatest number, -- the foundation of utilitarianism.
Syn.
Usefulness; advantageous; benefit; profit; avail; service.
-- Utility, Usefulness. Usefulness has an Anglo-Saxon prefix, utility is Latin; and hence the former is used chiefly of things in the concrete, while the latter is employed more in a general and abstract sense. Thus, we speak of the utility of an invention, and the usefulness of the thing invented; of the utility of an institution, and the usefulness of an individual. So beauty and utility (not usefulness) are brought into comparison. Still, the words are often used interchangeably.