U-tĭl'i-ty, n.

n. [Fr. utilité, Pr. utilitat, Sp. utilidad, Pg. utilidade, It. utilità, Lat. utilitas, from utilis, useful. See UTILE.] The state or quality of being utile or useful; usefulness; production of good; profitableness to some valuable end; as, the utility of manures upon land; the utility of the sciences; the utility of medicines.

The utility of the enterprise was, however, so great and obvious that all opposition proved useless. Macaulay.

Synonyms—Usefulness; advantageousness; benefit; profit; avail; service.—UTILITY, USEFULNESS. Usefulness is Anglo-Saxon, and 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, in many cases, used interchangeably.