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UTILITY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The service (electric power or water or transportation) provided by a public utility
Example:
all the utilities were lost after the hurricane
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("utility" is a kind of...):
service (work done by one person or group that benefits another)
Sense 2
Meaning:
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
Example:
the price of the house included all utilities
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("utility" is a kind of...):
facility; installation (a building or place that provides a particular service or is used for a particular industry)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "utility"):
electrical plant; electrical system (utility that provides electricity)
heat; heating; heating plant; heating system (utility to warm a building)
plumbing; plumbing system (utility consisting of the pipes and fixtures for the distribution of water or gas in a building and for the disposal of sewage)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The quality of being of practical use
Synonyms:
usefulness; utility
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("utility" is a kind of...):
quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)
Attribute:
useful; utile (being of use or service)
useless (having no beneficial use or incapable of functioning usefully)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "utility"):
detergence; detergency (detergent quality; the quality of having cleansing power)
function; purpose; role; use (what something is used for)
helpfulness (the property of providing useful assistance)
use (a particular service)
serviceability; serviceableness; usability; usableness; useableness (the quality of being able to provide good service)
instrumentality (the quality of being instrumental for some purpose)
practicality (concerned with actual use rather than theoretical possibilities)
practicability; practicableness (the quality of being usable)
Antonym:
inutility (the quality of having no practical use)
Derivation:
utile (being of use or service)
utilise (put into service; make work or employ for a particular purpose or for its inherent or natural purpose)
utilitarian (having a useful function)
utilitarian (having utility often to the exclusion of values)
utilize (put into service; make work or employ for a particular purpose or for its inherent or natural purpose)
Sense 4
Meaning:
(computer science) a program designed for general support of the processes of a computer
Example:
a computer system provides utility programs to perform the tasks needed by most users
Synonyms:
service program; utility; utility program
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("utility" is a kind of...):
computer program; computer programme; program; programme ((computer science) a sequence of instructions that a computer can interpret and execute)
Meronyms (parts of "utility"):
service routine; utility routine (a routine that can be used as needed)
Domain category:
computer science; computing (the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "utility"):
trace program (a utility program that exhibits the sequence and results of executing the instructions in another program)
sort program; sorting program (a utility program that sorts data items)
output program (a utility program that organizes the output of a computer)
input program (a utility program that organizes the input to a computer)
diagnostic program (a program that recognizes and explains faults in the equipment or mistakes in a computer program)
device driver; driver ((computer science) a program that determines how a computer will communicate with a peripheral device)
Sense 5
Meaning:
A company that performs a public service; subject to government regulation
Synonyms:
public-service corporation; public utility; public utility company; utility
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("utility" is a kind of...):
service (a company or agency that performs a public service; subject to government regulation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "utility"):
phone company; phone service; telco; telephone company; telephone service (a public utility that provides telephone service)
electric company; light company; power company; power service (a public utility that provides electricity)
water company; waterworks (a public utility that provides water)
gas company; gas service (a public utility that provides gas)
bus company; bus service (a public utility providing local transportation)
Sense 6
Meaning:
(economics) a measure that is to be maximized in any situation involving choice
Classified under:
Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
Hypernyms ("utility" is a kind of...):
metric; system of measurement (a system of related measures that facilitates the quantification of some particular characteristic)
Domain category:
economic science; economics; political economy (the branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "utility"):
marginal utility ((economics) the amount that utility increases with an increase of one unit of an economic good or service)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Capable of substituting in any of several positions on a team
Example:
a utility infielder
Synonyms:
substitute; utility
Classified under:
Similar:
secondary (being of second rank or importance or value; not direct or immediate)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Used of beef; usable but inferior
Synonyms:
utility; utility-grade
Classified under:
Similar:
inferior (of low or inferior quality)
Context examples:
The CBRG also supports the development of databases and informatics systems to optimize tracking and assessment of biomarker utility and expression patterns.
(Cancer Biomarkers Research Group, NCI Thesaurus)
The infrastructure and tools created by caBIG also have broad utility outside the cancer community. caBIG is being developed under the leadership of the National Cancer Institute's Center for Bioinformatics.
(Cancer Bioinformatics Grid, NCI Thesaurus)
All of those things are valuable, in terms of this technology's utility in biomedical or aerospace applications, says Joe Tracy, a professor of materials science and engineering at NC State.
(Technique uses magnets, light to control and reconfigure soft robots, National Science Foundation)
His unexpected accession to title and fortune had removed all his difficulties; and never had the general loved his daughter so well in all her hours of companionship, utility, and patient endurance as when he first hailed her Your Ladyship!
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Utility does.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Sometimes, indeed, I have thought you were half suspecting me of pleading poor Martin's cause, which was never the case; but, from all my observations, I am convinced of her being an artless, amiable girl, with very good notions, very seriously good principles, and placing her happiness in the affections and utility of domestic life.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
This approach of culturing circulating cancer cells in the blood, analyzing them for new mutations that have developed during therapy, and testing the utility of drugs targeting those mutations could become the essence of individually adjusted cancer therapy in the future.
(Isolated cancer cells may lead to personalized treatments, NIH)
It exactly answers my idea of a fine country, because it unites beauty with utility—and I dare say it is a picturesque one too, because you admire it; I can easily believe it to be full of rocks and promontories, grey moss and brush wood, but these are all lost on me.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
A discrete, structured plan (that persists over time) of a formal investigation to assess the utility, impact, pharmacological, physiological, and/or psychological effects of a particular treatment, procedure, drug, device, biologic, food product, cosmetic, care plan, or subject characteristic.
(Clinical Study Protocol, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)
Preclinical, phase I, and phase II studies of both monoclonal antibodies to VEGF and blockers of the VEGF receptor tyrosine kinase pathway indicate that these agents are safe and offer potential clinical utility in patients with hematologic malignancies.
(Angiogenesis Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)
