useful

[ yoos-fuhl ]

/ ˈyus fəl /

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See synonyms for: useful / usefully / usefulness on Thesaurus.com

adjective

being of use or service; serving some purpose; advantageous, helpful, or of good effect: a useful member of society.

of practical use, as for doing work; producing material results; supplying common needs: the useful arts; useful work.

OTHER WORDS FOR useful

1, 2 profitable, efficacious, beneficial.

See synonyms for useful on Thesaurus.com

OPPOSITES FOR useful

1, 2 useless.

See antonyms for useful on Thesaurus.com

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CAN YOU ANSWER THESE COMMON GRAMMAR DEBATES?

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Question 1 of 7

Which sentence is correct?

His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

His boss, who he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

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Origin of useful

First recorded in 1585–95; use + -ful

OTHER WORDS FROM useful

use·ful·ly, adverbuse·ful·ness, nounun·use·ful, adjectiveun·use·ful·ly, adverb

un·use·ful·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use useful in a sentence

This article will hopefully serve as a useful refresher on some of those topics, particularly the latest science on masks, how to use them, and what to look for when buying them.
Mask up! How to choose and maintain the best masks for use against COVID-19|Corey Gaskin|November 20, 2020|Ars Technica
On the mainland, being larger may be more useful in dissuading the toads’ predators, she says.
Guttural toads shrank by a third after just 100 years on two islands|Jake Buehler|November 19, 2020|Science News
The goal of this kind of A-I is to help computers make sense of human languages in a way that’s useful.
What is AI? We made this to help.|Tate Ryan-Mosley|November 18, 2020|MIT Technology Review
I still have an old Silicon Valley ethos of wanting to do useful things for people and to impact the world positively—unfortunately that’s become the type of thing that is made fun of in popular media, like Silicon Valley.
Why so many valuable startups seem like the dumbest idea at first|Lucinda Shen|November 13, 2020|Fortune

Computer programs already are useful for recording songs that people come up with.
Computers are changing how art is made|Stephen Ornes|November 12, 2020|Science News For Students
A short digression therefore, on that subject, may perhaps be neither unuseful nor unentertaining.
Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republicks|Edward Wortley Montagu
Whereupon I pointed the not unuseful moral that what I had said applied to Mademoiselle also.
A Tatter of Scarlet|S. R. Crockett
He attended to his own commissariat; dispensing with the cheating commissioners, as "unuseful evils."
Rupert Prince Palatine|Eva Scott
But a such carriage discovered—dcouverte—seems to me well unuseful in a country where he falls of rain without cease.
Mr. Punch in the Highlands|Various
If in the meantime it deserve the name of no unuseful trifle, 'tis all it is capable of.
Concord Days|A. Bronson Alcott

British Dictionary definitions for useful

useful

/ (ˈjuːsfʊl) /

adjective

able to be used advantageously, beneficially, or for several purposes; helpful or serviceable

informal commendable or capablea useful term's work

noun

Australian informal an odd-jobman or general factotum

Derived forms of useful

usefully, adverbusefulness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

useful

OTHER WORDS FOR useful

OPPOSITES FOR useful

Origin of useful

OTHER WORDS FROM useful

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How to use useful in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for useful

Derived forms of useful