USEFULNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does usefulness mean? 

• USEFULNESS (noun)
  The noun USEFULNESS has 1 sense:

1. the quality of being of practical use

  Familiarity information: USEFULNESS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• USEFULNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of being of practical use

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

usefulness; utility

Hypernyms ("usefulness" 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 "usefulness"):

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:

uselessness (the quality of having no practical use)

Derivation:

useful (having a useful function)

 Context examples 

Dromostanolone inhibits the growth of estrogen receptor-presenting breast cancers; its virilizing effects limit its clinical usefulness.

(Dromostanolone, NCI Thesaurus)

She had great pleasure in feeling her usefulness, but could not conceive how they would have managed without her.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It is also a duty owed to yourself, for excessive sorrow prevents improvement or enjoyment, or even the discharge of daily usefulness, without which no man is fit for society.”

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Her first attempts at usefulness were in an endeavour to find out who were the parents, but Harriet could not tell.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Studies are underway to determine the safety and usefulness of many CAM practices.

(Complementary and Alternative Medicine, NIH: National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine)

While panobinostat is already in early clinical testing in DIPG patients, its usefulness may be limited because cancer cells can learn to evade its effects.

(Scientists find promising drug combination against lethal childhood brain cancers, National Institutes of Health)

Physical harm reducing the value, operation, or usefulness of something.

(Damage, NCI Thesaurus)

Here were a phial of some salt, and the record of a series of experiments that had led (like too many of Jekyll’s investigations) to no end of practical usefulness.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Her usefulness to little Charles would always give some sweetness to the memory of her two months' visit there, but he was gaining strength apace, and she had nothing else to stay for.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

But the world would soon be sensible of its usefulness; and he flattered himself, that a more noble, exalted thought never sprang in any other man’s head.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)