utility

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Old French utilitet (“usefulness”) (Modern French utilité), ultimately from Latin uti (“to use, enjoy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /juːˈtɪl.ɪ.ti/

Noun

utility (plural utilities)

1. The state or condition of being useful; usefulness.
2. Something that is useful.
3. (economics) The ability of a commodity to satisfy needs or wants; the satisfaction experienced by the consumer of that commodity.
4. (business, finance) A service provider, such as an electric company or water company; or, the securities of such a provider.
5. (computing) 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.

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

6. (sports) The ability to play multiple positions.

Synonyms

• (state of being useful): usefulness, note
• See also Wikisaurus:utility

Translations

state or condition of being useful

• Czech: užitečnost (cs) f
• Dutch: bruikbaarheid (nl) f, handigheid (nl) f
• Esperanto: utileco (eo)
• Estonian: kasulikkus (et)
• Finnish: hyödyllisyys (fi)
• French: utilité (fr) f
• Galician: utilidade (gl) f
• German: nützlich (de)

• Italian: utilità (it) f
• Japanese: 有用性 (ja) (ゆうようせい, yūyōsei)
• Polish: użyteczność (pl) f
• Romanian: utilitate (ro), folos (ro)
• Scottish Gaelic: math (gd) m
• Slovak: úžitok (sk) m
• Spanish: utilidad (es) f
• Swedish: användbarhet (sv) c

something that is useful

• Dutch: hulpmiddel (nl) n, handigs (nl)
• Finnish: hyödyke, hyötytavara, hyötyesine; työkalu, apuväline
• French: utilitaire (fr) m
• Italian: attrezzo (it) m, strumento (it) m
• Japanese: 実用品 (ja) (じつようひん, jitsuyōhin)

• Polish: użyteczność (pl) f
• Scottish Gaelic: math (gd) m
• Spanish: conveniencia (es) f
• Swedish: användbar (sv) (adjective)

economics: ability of a commodity to satisfy needs or wants

• Czech: užitek (cs) m
• Dutch: bruikbaarheid (nl) f

• Swedish: användbarhet (sv) c, lönsamhet (sv) c

business: service provider

• Dutch: voorziening (nl) f
• Finnish: hyödyke (fi), palvelu (fi)
• Italian: fornitore (it) m, servizio (it) m

• Spanish: proveedor de servicios (es)
• Swedish: leverantör (sv) c, tjänsteleverantör (sv) c, specific public utilities: vattenverk (sv) n, kraftverk (sv) n, värmeverk (sv) n and other compounds with verk (sv) n

computing: software program with specific task

• Dutch: hulpmiddel (nl) n, hulpprogramma (nl) n
• Japanese: ユーティリティ (ja) (yūtiriti)

• Polish: program użytkowy (pl) m
• Swedish: tillämpning (sv) c, applikation (sv) c, verktyg (sv) n