n.
Pronunciation: yü- ' ti-l ə -t ē
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural -ties
Etymology: Middle English utilite, from Anglo-French utilité, from Latin utilitat, utilitas, from utilis useful, from uti to use
Date: 14th century
1 : fitness for some purpose or worth to some end
2 : something useful or designed for use
3 a : PUBLIC UTILITY b (1) : a service (as light, power, or water) provided by a public utility (2) : equipment or a piece of equipment to provide such service or a comparable service
4 : a program or routine designed to perform or facilitate especially routine operations (as copying files or editing text) on a computer