practicality
Americannoun
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the quality of being adapted or designed for actual use; usefulness or convenience.
Your home furniture choices should be based on practicality, durability, and beauty.
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interest in or inclination toward actual work or activity as opposed to theories or ideas.
My mother was an entrepreneur whose tremendous vision, teamed with her practicality, “moved mountains.”
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a detail or consideration involved in putting something into action.
She talked with culinary students about their dreams as well as the practicalities of launching a food business.
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the constraints or demands of real life or actual implementation.
Economy and practicality dictate that we can't save every green space from development.
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the quality or fact of relating to actual activity, especially ordinary or everyday activity.
I appreciate the real-world practicality of the question, “What does it mean to be a father?”
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of practicality
Explanation
Something that demonstrates practicality makes good sense. If you choose your new shoes based on their practicality, you'll probably buy a pair of sneakers, rather than knee-high boots with five inch heels. A person's practicality can also be called common sense, and an object or action's practicality has to do with how efficient or suitable it is. The practicality of doctors carefully washing their hands before surgery is clear, while the practicality of dressing your dog in a ballerina costume is less so. The root of practicality is practical, which in turn comes from the Old French word practique, "fit for action."
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.
See Examples For:
Conservative Senedd member Andrew RT Davies later said he questioned "the practicality of the kind of training that has been suggested".
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
In a country that esteemed practicality, fiction was enlisted to speak directly to a cause.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
There’s an inherent practicality to a good biscuit.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2026
Indiana’s lack of glamour is a point of pride, rooted in Midwestern practicality and endless flat fields of corn.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
He was harshing my vibe with his practicality.
From "The Season of Styx Malone" by Kekla Magoon
For all the vital high-level talk about plans and policy, there are also the basic practicalities of the preparation for the big move-in day, when everything official changes.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Wilde in particular lights up during this section, Angela’s mind racing at possibilities she never considered for herself while fumbling over the practicalities of protocols and just how this would work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
Although the practicalities and cost of sending a team to South America in 1950 was daunting.
From BBC ● May 7, 2026
“There’s very little tangible information about any of the practicalities of who it would apply to and there’s a little bit of conflicting messaging,” said McGill’s Smith.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
Despite all the attention paid to rogue companies like Enron, academics know very little about the practicalities of white-collar crime.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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.
