1. A company that performs a public service; subject to government regulation
   "The local public utility was responsible for maintaining the city's power grid"; "The electric company is a public utility company";
   - public utility, public utility company, public-service corporation
    
2. The quality of being of practical use
   "The utility of the new tool became apparent during the project";
   - usefulness
    
3. The service (electric power, water or transportation) provided by a public utility
   "the cost of utilities never decreases"; "all the utilities were lost after the hurricane"
    
4. 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
   "the price of the house included all utilities"
    
5. (economics) a measure that is to be maximized in any situation involving choice
   "The economist calculated the utility of each option to determine the best course of action"
    
6. (computing) a program designed for general support of the processes of a computer
   "a computer system provides utility programs to perform the tasks needed by most users";
   - utility program, service program

1. Designed for practical use rather than beauty
   "a utility vehicle"; "utility clothing"
    
2. Capable of substituting in any of several positions on a team
   "a utility infielder";
   - substitute

Derived forms: utilities

See also: secondary, useful, useless, utile

Type of: computer program, computer programme [Brit], facility, installation, metric, program, programme [Brit, Cdn], quality, service, system of measurement

Antonym: unusefulness

Encyclopedia: Utility