Result from Foreign Dictionaries (3 entries found)

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Utility \U*til"i*ty\, n. [OE. utilite, F. utilit['e], L. utilitas, fr. utilis useful. See {Utile}.] [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] The utility of the enterprises was, however, so great and obvious that all opposition proved useless. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] 2. (Polit. Econ.) Adaptation to satisfy the desires or wants; intrinsic value. See Note under {Value}, 2. [1913 Webster] Value in use is utility, and nothing else, and in political economy should be called by that name and no other. --F. A. Walker. [1913 Webster] 3. Happiness; the greatest good, or happiness, of the greatest number, -- the foundation of utilitarianism. --J. S. Mill. [1913 Webster] Syn: Usefulness; advantageous; benefit; profit; avail; service. Usage: {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. [1913 Webster] From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: utility adj 1: used of beef; usable but inferior [syn: {utility(a)}, {utility-grade}] 2: capable of substituting in any of several positions on a team; "a utility infielder" [syn: {utility(a)}, {substitute(a)}] n 1: a company that performs a public service; subject to government regulation [syn: {utility}, {public utility}, {public utility company}, {public-service corporation}] 2: the quality of being of practical use [syn: {utility}, {usefulness}] [ant: {inutility}, {unusefulness}, {uselessness}] 3: 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: (economics) a measure that is to be maximized in any situation involving choice 5: (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" [syn: {utility program}, {utility}, {service program}] 6: 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" From Dutch-English Freedict Dictionary ver. 0.1.3 [fd-nld-eng]: utility /ytiliti/ 1. utility 2. utility