utility Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a company that performs a public service; subject to government regulation
    public utility company; public-service corporation; public utility.
  2. noun the quality of being of practical use
    usefulness.
  3. noun the service (electric power or water or transportation) provided by a public utility
    • the cost of utilities never decreases
    • all the utilities were lost after the hurricane
  4. noun (economics) a measure that is to be maximized in any situation involving choice
  5. noun (computer science) a program designed for general support of the processes of a computer
    service program; utility program.
    • a computer system provides utility programs to perform the tasks needed by most users
  6. noun a facility composed of one or more pieces of equipment connected to or part of a structure and designed to provide a service such as heat or electricity or water or sewage disposal
    • the price of the house included all utilities
  7. adjective satellite used of beef; usable but inferior
    utility-grade.
  8. adjective satellite capable of substituting in any of several positions on a team
    substitute.
    • a utility infielder

WordNet

U*til"i*ty noun
Etymology
OE. utilite, F. utilité, L. utilitas, fr. utilis useful. See Utile.
Definitions
  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.
  2. (Polit. Econ.) Adaptation to satisfy the desires or wants; intrinsic value. See Note under Value, 2.
    Value in use is utility, and nothing else, and in political economy should be called by that name and no other. F. A. Walker.
  3. Happiness; the greatest good, or happiness, of the greatest number, -- the foundation of utilitarianism. J. S. Mill. 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.

Webster 1913