USEFUL

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does useful mean? 

• USEFUL (adjective)
  The adjective USEFUL has 2 senses:

1. being of use or service

2. having a useful function

  Familiarity information: USEFUL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• USEFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Being of use or service

Synonyms:

useful; utile

Context example:

a useful member of society

Similar:

handy (useful and convenient)

multipurpose (having multiple uses)

reclaimable; recyclable; reusable (capable of being used again)

serviceable (capable of being put to good use)

usable; useable (capable of being put to use)

utilitarian (having utility often to the exclusion of values)

utilizable (capable of being put to a profitable or practical use)

Also:

effective; effectual; efficacious (producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect)

expedient (serving to promote your interest)

helpful (providing assistance or serving a useful function)

profitable (yielding material gain or profit)

serviceable (ready for service or able to give long service)

Attribute:

usefulness; utility (the quality of being of practical use)

Antonym:

useless (having no beneficial use or incapable of functioning usefully)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having a useful function

Synonyms:

useful; utilitarian

Context example:

utilitarian steel tables

Similar:

functional (designed for or capable of a particular function or use)

Derivation:

usefulness (the quality of being of practical use)

 Context examples 

To have a happy youth, to be well and wisely married, and to lead useful, pleasant lives, with as little care and sorrow to try them as God sees fit to send.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

NMRI is especially useful for imaging the brain, the spine, the soft tissue of joints, and the inside of bones.

(NMRI, NCI Dictionary)

“I have carried this because I thought it might be useful,” said he.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This kind of anxiety is useful - it can make you more alert or careful.

(Anxiety, NIH: National Institute of Mental Health)

You have been here only to be useful.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Thus, these agents are especially useful for gene transfer into neuronal cells.

(Adenovirus Vector, NCI Thesaurus)

She must not wonder at all this; what could be more natural than that Edmund should be making himself useful, and proving his good-nature by any one?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"Excuse me," he continued: "necessity compels me to make you useful."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“—It would be so useful to us afterwards,” I went on.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Such larger scale gene targeting in an animal model could be particularly useful for human genomic research.

(A new role for zebrafish: larger scale gene function studies, NIH)