Definitions for utility
yuˈtɪl ɪ tiutil·i·ty

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:4.3 / 3 votes

1. utility, public utility, public utility company, public-service corporationnoun

   a company that performs a public service; subject to government regulation

2. utility, usefulnessnoun

   the quality of being of practical use

3. utilitynoun

   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. utilitynoun

   (economics) a measure that is to be maximized in any situation involving choice

5. utility program, utility, service programnoun

   (computer science) a program designed for general support of the processes of a computer

   "a computer system provides utility programs to perform the tasks needed by most users"

6. utilityadjective

   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. utility(a), utility-gradeadjective

   used of beef; usable but inferior

8. utility(a), substitute(a)adjective

   capable of substituting in any of several positions on a team

   "a utility infielder"

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. utilitynoun

   The ability to play multiple positions.

2. utilitynoun

   The state or condition of being useful; usefulness.

3. utilitynoun

   Something that is useful.

4. utilitynoun

   The ability of a commodity to satisfy needs or wants; the satisfaction experienced by the consumer of that commodity.

5. utilitynoun

   A service provider, such as an electric company or water company or its securities.

6. utilitynoun

   A software program specifically designed to help manage and tune the computer hardware, operating system or application software, and perform a single task or a small range of tasks; as opposed to application software which tends to be software suites.

   I've bought a new disk utility that can recover deleted files.

7. Etymology: From utilitet (Modern French utilité), ultimately from uti.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Utilitynoun

   Usefulness; profit; convenience; advantageousness.

   Etymology: utilité, Fr. utilitas, Lat.

   Those things which have long gone together, are confederate; whereas new things piece not so well; but though they help by their utility, yet they trouble by their inconformity. Francis Bacon, Nat. Hist.

   Should we blindly obey the restraints of physicians and astrologers, we should confine the utility of physick unto a very few days. Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errours.

   M. Zulichem desired me that I would give a relation of the cure of the gout, that might be made publick, as a thing which might prove of common utility to so great numbers as were subject to that disease. William Temple.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Utility

   As a topic of economics, utility is used to model worth or value. Its usage has evolved significantly over time. The term was introduced initially as a measure of pleasure or happiness as part of the theory of utilitarianism by moral philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The term has been adapted and reapplied within neoclassical economics, which dominates modern economic theory, as a utility function that represents a single consumer's preference ordering over a choice set but is not comparable across consumers. This concept of utility is personal and based on choice rather than on pleasure received, and so is specified more rigorously than the original concept but makes it less useful (and controversial) for ethical decisions.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. utility

   Utility, in economics and business, refers to the satisfaction or benefit that a consumer derives from consuming a product, service, or action. It represents the measurement of the "usefulness" or value that consumers perceive in their choices. The principle of utility helps to understand how individuals and economies aim to gain optimal satisfaction in dealing with scarcity of resources.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:4.5 / 2 votes

1. Utilitynoun

   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

2. Utilitynoun

   adaptation to satisfy the desires or wants; intrinsic value. See Note under Value, 2

3. Utilitynoun

   happiness; the greatest good, or happiness, of the greatest number, -- the foundation of utilitarianism

WikidataRate this definition:3.0 / 1 vote

1. Utility

   In economics, utility is a representation of preferences over some set of goods and services. Preferences have a utility representation so long as they are transitive, complete, and continuous. Utility is usually applied by economists in such constructs as the indifference curve, which plot the combination of commodities that an individual or a society would accept to maintain a given level of satisfaction. Individual utility and social utility can be construed as the value of a utility function and a social welfare function respectively. When coupled with production or commodity constraints, under some assumptions, these functions can be used to analyze Pareto efficiency, such as illustrated by Edgeworth boxes in contract curves. Such efficiency is a central concept in welfare economics. In finance, utility is applied to generate an individual's price for an asset called the indifference price. Utility functions are also related to risk measures, with the most common example being the entropic risk measure.

Editors ContributionRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. utility

   A type of social enterprise, organization or form of nationalized service controlled and managed by a form of unity assembly, unity council, unity legislature, unity senate, unity house of representatives, unity parliament, unity government, local unity government, regional unity government, national unity government, european unity government and international unity government that provides a public service for a power network, water, electricity, solar power, broadband network and other types of service.

   The electricity utility agency is nationalized to ensure continued service, power to the people, optimum health, human rights and shared prosperity for all people.

   
   

   Submitted by MaryC on March 28, 2020  

Matched Categories

1. • Computer Science
   • Economics
   • Program
   • Quality
   • Service
   • System Of Measurement

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'utility' in Nouns Frequency: #2224

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

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How to pronounce utility?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say utility in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of utility in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of utility in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of utility in a Sentence

1. Sharon Cooksey:

   It can electrocute you, your entire home, your neighbors and the [utility workers] that are trying to restore power.

2. Mark Kleiman:

   I don’t think there's any question that cannabinoids( constituents of marijuana) have medical utility, and we have to find out what that is.

3. Van Duyne:

   It's $1.6 billion of wages he just knocked outwith a signature, it's thousands and thousandsof jobs that were just decimated overnight. You think about the folks that Democrats claim that they represent-- working poor, people on fixed incomes -- and literally with onemovement of the pen hehas now raised their electricity rates,raised their gas rates. ... They're nowgoing to have their utility costs go skyrocket.

4. San Sebastian Mayor Javier Jimenez:

   The governor should have acted with more urgency and he should have taken charge of the utility company.

5. Cesare Beccaria:

   False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=utility
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Utility
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=utility
4. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility
5. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
6. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/utility
7. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=utility
8. ^ Usage in printed sources
   https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=utility