utilise

See also: utilisé

English

Alternative forms
  • utilize (American, Canadian, Oxford British spelling)

Etymology

From French utiliser, from Italian utilizzare, from utile (“useful”), from Latin ūtilis, from ūtī (“use”). Attested c. 1810.[1]

Verb

utilise (third-person singular simple present utilises, present participle utilising, simple past and past participle utilised)

  1. To make use of; to use.
  2. To make useful; to find a practical use for.
  3. To make best use of; to use to its fullest extent, potential, or ability.
  4. To make do with; to use in manner different from that originally intended[2]

Usage notes

Many style guides have advised against utilize and utilise, arguing that the simpler verb use is always preferable (and analogously, that the noun use is preferable to utilization and utilisation).[3][4][5][6] When used simply as a synonym in ordinary writing (as in “please utilise the rear door when exiting the aircraft”) it can strike readers as pretentious, and so should be used sparingly.[7] American novelist David Foster Wallace calls it a puff word.[8] Op-ed editor of The Los Angeles Time Juliet Lapidos "There are many bad words in English, but only one worst word. That word is utilize" [9]

It does not follow that because some speakers eschew a particular usage, it must be everywhere redundant. Utilise is suited to senses in which use would require circumlocution. Examples of such senses include “put to use”, as in “...utilise the production capacities of the local industries fully before ordering from foreign industries.” “exploit or consume”, as in “...utilise the support that the system provides, such as by making the most of tax exemptions and special supplies.” or “make best use of” (profitable, practical use, not just general use), as in “...farmers must utilise their land fully to boost food security”. Further, in American usage, utilize can imply use outside an object’s intended purpose, as in “...our airmen utilized damaged drop tanks in the field, cutting them open for bathtubs”.[10][11][12]

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

References
  1. “utilise” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  2. T.A.R. Cheney, Getting the Words Right, Writer's Digest Books (1983).
  3. Sir Ernest Gowers 1965 The Complete Plain Words Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. Eric Partridge 1973 Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English England: Penguin Books
  5. John E. Kahn (ed) 1985 The Right Word at the Right Time London:Readers Digest
  6. Pam Peters 1995 The Cambridge Australian English Style Guide Cambridge:Cambridge University Press
  7. New Oxford American Dictionary 3rd edition (c) 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
  8. He continues: "Since it does nothing that good old use doesn't do, its extra letters and syllables don't make a writer seem smarter. I tell my students that using utilize makes you seem either pompous or so insecure that you'll use pointlessly big words in an attempt to look smart."
  9. Juliet Lapidos 2017 Utilize is the worst word in the English language
  10. A story of tanks
  11. “use” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  12. “utilise” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.

French

Verb

utilise

  1. first-person singular present indicative of utiliser
  2. third-person singular present indicative of utiliser
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of utiliser
  4. third-person singular present subjunctive of utiliser
  5. second-person singular imperative of utiliser
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