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
Etymology
Origin of useful
Explanation
If you can use something, it's useful. Useful things are handy for whatever you're doing. If something is just what you need or you just find it helpful, then it's useful. A hammer is useful in building many things. Coasters are useful if you don't want a coffee table to get stains. College degrees are useful — or necessary — for many careers. MacGyver would tell you that just about anything can be useful at some point: it all depends what you need to do.
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.
There were fewer places to hang out, and the ones that remained were less useful due to overcrowding.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
Stephen has a warning, though: "A return to the UK could be a useful brand reset, but a postcode does not reposition a brand. Behaviour does."
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
"Pollen has been very useful in identifying different coatings where the molecular profiles were identical."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
“As unpleasant as it is to have to go to war, it can actually be a useful forcing function to make sure that we’ll be prepared for something much more strategically challenging in the future.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
She tied one end of a rope around Duane’s waist and then wrapped the remaining length around everyone else except Major Puff, who felt he would be more useful giving commands.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
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.
