public utility

American  

noun

1. a business enterprise, as a public-service corporation, performing an essential public service and regulated by the federal, state, or local government.

2. Usually public utilities. stocks or bonds of public-utility companies, excluding railroads.

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public utility British  

noun

1. Also called (US): public-service corporation.  an enterprise concerned with the provision to the public of essentials, such as electricity or water

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public utility Cultural  

1. A private company supplying water, gas, electricity, telephone service, or the like, which is granted a monopoly by the government and then regulated by the government.

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Other Word Forms

• public-utility adjective

Etymology

Origin of public utility

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

The company is working with the Tennessee Valley Authority, a public utility known as the TVA, on that project.

From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026

The model now providing depoliticized ATC in nearly 100 countries is an aviation public utility, funded entirely by system fees and charges.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 19, 2025

Southern California Edison, the investor-owned public utility that may be responsible for sparking the deadly Eaton fire, is seeking a rate increase of 10% to cover operating costs.

From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 2025

He had recruited the architects to design the public buildings with a distinctive aesthetic that would make them as much art as public utility.

From New York Times • Feb. 4, 2024

There has been a little municipal building in some small places, but it is on an insignificant scale; the tendency is rather to favour societies of public utility as in France, Germany and Belgium.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 7 "Horticulture" to "Hudson Bay" by Various