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.
Gallium is also valuable because it can dissolve other metals, making it useful for producing liquid metal catalysts and `self-assembling structures,' in which disordered materials spontaneously organize themselves into ordered forms.
From Science Daily • Jul. 9, 2026
Investors could just average them, but they won’t draw any useful conclusions.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 8, 2026
Social media can be useful for learning about money, but Nunn is "deeply concerned" about financial influencers pushing risky products.
From BBC • Jul. 8, 2026
What makes whipped cottage cheese especially useful is that it behaves less like a “health swap” and more like a base sauce.
From Salon • Jul. 8, 2026
“Good day,” Alexander repeated through bared teeth; as a result the phrase, while socially useful, was not very well pronounced.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
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.
