tool use
Americannoun
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the utilization of objects, especially by animals, as tools or instruments to carry out actions such as aggression or defense, accessing food and water, grooming, building things, or playing.
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Computers. recourse by an artificial intelligence system to existing tools external to its own algorithms, such as specialized databases, translation software, or stock trading platforms, to perform tasks.
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.
Researchers say the discovery pushes back evidence for this type of wooden tool use by at least 40,000 years.
From Science Daily ● May 24, 2026
India, UAE, China, and Saudi Arabia lead in AI tool use and trust; UAE has nearly 65% of its working-age population using AI.
From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026
Marvell’s chips and accelerators should be even more valuable in a world driven by agentic AI, seeing as the technology requires continuous loops of reasoning, tool use, memory retrieval, and task coordination.
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
"We show that a cow can engage in genuinely flexible tool use," says Antonio Osuna-Mascaró.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 26, 2026
This kind of tool use is rarely seen in the animal kingdom and has never been documented in cattle before.
From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2026
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.
