Utility

How to spell utility

7 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce utility

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does utility mean?

1. nounThe quality of being useful, practical, or beneficial.
2. nounA company or service that supplies a public necessity such as water, gas, or electricity.

Utility in a sentence

• The manager questioned the utility of holding another meeting.

• The local utility raised its electricity rates again this winter.

• A folding ladder has real utility in a small flat.

• Setting up each utility took several phone calls after the move.

Where does utility come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin utilitas, meaning 'usefulness' or 'advantage', which was built on the adjective utilis, 'useful' or 'fit for use'. That adjective in turn grew from the verb uti, 'to use, to make use of', the same root that gives English words like 'use', 'utensil', and 'utilise'. English took the word in during the late 1300s through Old French utilite, at first to mean simple usefulness or practical benefit. Over the following centuries the sense broadened, and by the nineteenth century it picked up the now-common meaning of a public service such as water, gas, or electricity, things considered useful necessities. The single 'l' and the unstressed 'i' in the middle (util-I-ty) are the spots writers second-guess, but remembering the parent word 'utilise' keeps the spelling on track.

How the word is built

• util- (from Latin utilis: useful)
• -ity (noun suffix forming an abstract quality)