utilization
Americannoun
-
utilizations
plural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of utilization
First recorded in 1840–45; utiliz(e) ( def. ) + -ation ( def. )
Explanation
Utilization is a fancy way of saying "use." A team's utilization of a gym for practices might need to continue until it stops raining. You can see the verb utilize in utilization. When you utilize something, you use it, whether it is a tool, like when you utilize a pen to write something down, or a skill or talent, like the speed you utilize when you run a race. So utilization is the act of using, like the utilization of your voice that enables you to sing a song.
Vocabulary lists containing utilization
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.
See Examples For:
Vessel utilization is likely to recover before charter rates, while increased decommissioning work could provide further support, he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
The state agency calculated that the district has classroom capacity for about 718,475 students, compared with a 2025-26 enrollment of 353,065, “representing an overall utilization rate of approximately 49.1%.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Researchers using different extraction techniques produced fractions with different structures and different levels of utilization by gut microbes.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
With the high utilization, “you are seeing a continued investment cycle,” Wilhelm said, adding that “it is possible for excess capacity at some point, which can lead to a selloff” in the stock market.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
The utilization of planetary resources so that new interstellar spacecraft could be constructed locally would be a slow process.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
“Crucially, we also believe we are at the crux of a gross margin inflection point, driven by improving utilizations and GlobalFoundries aggressively expanding into accretive end-markets,” Muse wrote.
From Barron's ● May 4, 2026
The lower chemicals utilizations were already well flagged by the company, they say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
The reduced utilizations, Rand found, occurred because the subjects decided to delay or forgo treatments, possibly inadvisedly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2025
Compared with these traces of giant handiwork, what are the works of man? just little putterings for our own convenience, just little utilizations of waste energies for our own purposes.
From Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile Being a Desultory Narrative of a Trip Through New England, New York, Canada, and the West, By "Chauffeur" by Arthur Jerome Eddy
"Petrouchka" has a brilliance and vivacity and madness that makes Rimsky's scenes from popular life, his utilizations of vulgar tunes and dances scarcely comparable to it.
From Musical Portraits Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers by Paul Rosenfeld
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.
