useful
Americanadjective
-
being of use or service; serving some purpose; advantageous, helpful, or of good effect.
a useful member of society.
- Synonyms:
- beneficial, efficacious, profitable
- Antonyms:
- useless
-
of practical use, as for doing work; producing material results; supplying common needs.
the useful arts; useful work.
- Synonyms:
- beneficial, efficacious, profitable
- Antonyms:
- useless
adjective
-
able to be used advantageously, beneficially, or for several purposes; helpful or serviceable
-
informal commendable or capable
a useful term's work
noun
Other Word Forms
- unuseful adjective
- unusefully adverb
- unusefulness noun
- usefully adverb
- usefulness noun
Etymology
Origin of useful
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
With no deal in sight, it is more useful to watch the icy fields of Zaporizhzhia on his video feed, he said.
A public accounting of how that happened would be useful.
Back home, the exercise becomes even more useful.
From Salon
The jobless rate tends to be the more useful labor-market gauge in January.
From MarketWatch
He offers a useful outline of digital transformation: digitization, integration, analysis and finally acting on insights to change behavior.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
