utility

Meanings

Noun

• The state or condition of being useful; usefulness.
• Something that is useful.
• The ability of a commodity to satisfy needs or wants; the satisfaction experienced by the consumer of that commodity.
• Well-being, satisfaction, pleasure, or happiness.
• A natural or legal areal monopoly distributer of a commodity (less often a service) delivered in continuous flows to multiple consumers from a common physical, infrastructural network, such as an electric company or water company; or, the securities of such a provider.
• A software program designed to perform a single task or a small range of tasks, often to help manage and tune computer hardware, an operating system or application software.
• The ability to play multiple positions.

Adjective

• Having to do with, or owned by, a service provider.
• (Of a building or its components) containing or intended for any of a building’s often-utility-related commodity transport, such as pipes or wires, or converting equipment, such as furnaces, water tanks or heaters, circuit breakers, central air conditioning units, laundry facilities, etc.

Related

Similar words

• usefulness, note

Opposite words

• disutility
• inutility

Origin

• From Middle English utilite, from Old French utilite, utilitet, from Latin ūtilitās, from uti. Surface etymology utile + -ity.