Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or in the interests of utility: utilitarian considerations in industrial design.
- adj. Exhibiting or stressing utility over other values; practical: plain, utilitarian kitchenware.
- adj. Of, characterized by, or advocating utilitarianism.
- n. One who advocates or practices utilitarianism.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Consisting in or pertaining to utility; having regard to utility rather than beauty and the like; specifically, making the greatest good of the greatest number the prime consideration. See the quotations.
- n. One who holds the doctrine of utilitarianism.
Wiktionary
- adj. of or relating to utility
- adj. practical and functional, not just for show.
- n. Someone who practices or advocates utilitarianism.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to utility; consisting in utility; �iming at utility as distinguished from beauty, ornament, etc.; sometimes, reproachfully, evincing, or characterized by, a regard for utility of a lower kind, or marked by a sordid spirit.
- adj. Of or pertaining to utilitarianism; supporting utilitarianism.
- n. One who holds the doctrine of utilitarianism.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having a useful function
- n. someone who believes that the value of a thing depends on its utility
- adj. having utility often to the exclusion of values
Etymologies
- 1781 utility + -arian (Wiktionary)
- utilit(y) + -arian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Guy Gavriel Kay approached the topic from what he termed a utilitarian perspective of the author who uses time as one of many tools in the authorial toolbox for providing narrative solutions.”
“I probably shouldn't have expressed my objection in utilitarian "does it do more harm than good?" terms.”
“Mill famously tried to accomodate this fact within utilitarian structure with a doctrine of “higher” and “lower” pleasures, though not especially convincingly.”
“While the period of interference from political totalitarianism has passed, is it not the case that frequently, across the globe, the exercise of reason and academic research are – subtly and not so subtly – constrained to bow to the pressures of ideological interest groups and the lure of short-term utilitarian or pragmatic goals?”
“He frames his theory in utilitarian terms: because women tend to be more group-oriented, and to be paid less, we may expect them to favour a political system that taxes heavily and spends the taxes on communal improvements, such as crèches or police patrols.”
“According to most legal scholars, the writers of the Constitution viewed copyright in utilitarian terms.”
“Having caught up the word utilitarian, while knowing nothing whatever about it but its sound, they habitually express by it the rejection, or the neglect, of pleasure in some of its forms; of beauty, of ornament, or of amusement.”
“[1] The author of this essay has reason for believing himself to be the first person who brought the word utilitarian into use.”
“I probably would have to self-describe as a utilitarian, or at least a consequentialist: I believe that moral rules are just a codification of “what we need to do to live together without killing each other.””
The Starry Heavens Above and the Moral Law Within (the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex)
“Usually the outdoors fixture are a little bit more utilitarian, which is really in right now, sort of this vintage-style look.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘utilitarian’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Keywords, by Raymond Williams
From a book about life and death.
aesthetic, alienation, art, behaviour, bourgeois, bureaucracy, capitalism, career, charity, city, civilization, class and 99 more...
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CycList
Anything related to cycling; no motorcycling, please.
frame, pedal, crank arm, top tube, down tube, seat tube, seat stay, chain stay, saddle, fork, hub, rim and 97 more...
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types of people
the name of a certain type of person or character
confidante, sycophant, exhibitionist, introvert, demagogue, ascetic, philanthropist, imbecile, zealot, stoic, fanatic, epicure and 3 more...
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National Library Agenda Summit
nla2006, summit, agenda, library, ala, diversity, education, learning, continuous, scan, environmental, plan and 646 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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Words from "Pearls Before Breakfast"
nondescript, shrewd, seed money, bureaucrat, indeterminate, fungible, cupidity, banal, grandeur, utilitarian, buffer, ecstatic and 123 more...
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The New Yorker
prejudice, ignominious, quintessence, disparity, vanguard, repudiated, eclectic, dredge, taxonomy, pugnacious, surreptitiously, pudgy and 113 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
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Tory's First Wordie List
perambulate, mumpsimus, euphoric, peripatetic, mellifluous, soporific, neologism, nihilism, nepotism, effervescent, lascivious, esoteric and 217 more...
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random
words I read but don't know
nascent, proxy, desultory, charlatan, churlish, emaciated, gaudy, shill, lurid, frisson, marauding, plunder and 610 more...
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Sat Vocabulary List
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 2155 more...
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Norman Lewis
All Words
ebullient, eccentric, eclectic, edify, efface, effusion, egalitarian, egocentric, egoist, egregious, elicit, elliptical and 907 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for utilitarian.
sakhalinskii "I'm a Utilitarian, so I don't see the rule against lying as absolute; it's always subject to some overriding utility which may prevent its exercise." - Peter Singer Jul 30, 2008