Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To put to use, especially to find a profitable or practical use for. See Synonyms at use.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To turn to profitable account or use; make useful; make use of: as, to utilize a stream for driving machinery. Also spelled utilise.
Wiktionary
- v. American alternative spelling of utilise.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make useful; to turn to profitable account or use; to make use of.
WordNet 3.0
- v. put into service; make work or employ for a particular purpose or for its inherent or natural purpose
- v. convert (from an investment trust to a unit trust)
Etymologies
- French utiliser, from Italian utilizzare, from utile, useful, from Latin ūtilis, from ūtī, to use. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“If you think the word "utilize" is a smarter version of "use," read "The Most Annoying Business Jargon" at forbes.com.”
“The release we utilize is a standard filming release that all production companies must have signed by everyone they film - or the television broadcaster will refuse to air our material.”
“Not only because a number of the flavors and aromas are not shared between cultures, but also because many of the actual names of fruits and other foodstuffs in Japanese utilize somewhat obscure Kanjii characters, and are better rendered using more modern Hiragana characters.”
“• to utilize: is there any reason in the world not to utilize “use” instead?”
“One thing you mentioned that I don’t think marketers fully utilize is the online research for offline sales.”
“Wired. com points to games as a motivating factor for the move, as many titles utilize non-Apple code.”
“Both titles utilize the Wii Balance Board and can schedule players 'fitness regimes.”
“Does Fallout 3 utilize a karma system without a separate reputation system?”
“We felt like this would be the perfect time to kind of utilize that power, so we sat in the driver's seat, and let everyone who was interested come to us.”
The Huffington Post: Mike Ragogna: Infinite Arms: A Conversation with Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell
“Not only that, they provided a friendly link that you can utilize which is rarely given in most mainstream outlets.”
ABC Mischaracterizes Obama's Alleged "Testy Exchange" With Reporter
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘utilize’.
-
EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
-
Orwellian Purism
Words and phrases George Orwell criticizes in his essay 'Politics and the English Language'.
ring the changes on, take up the cudge..., toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to..., play into the han..., no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubl..., on the order of t..., Achilles’ heel, swan song and 162 more...
-
MUSIC - jazz
funky, pedal, bebop, rap, mix, sub, mid, rag, ECM, bpm, bop, Afro and 437 more...
-
TECH - web application frameworks
limit, pack, automatic, HTTP, database, poi, event, coverage, core, hibernate, function, product and 310 more...
-
SCIE - publications
The vocabulary of scientific paper submission
enclose, resource, meaningful, margin, embedded, publisher, mentor, clip, spelling, appendix, gloss, refer and 188 more...
-
Cringeworthy Words and Phrases Encoun...
Don't get me wrong: I like my job. I like everyone I work with too, but not all of them are word lovers, and many of them abuse the language in ways that hurt me. I'm stashing them here so that p...
architected, beveraged, on the same sheet..., moving forward, incent, utilize, its', needless to say, right behind left..., brand equity, throughput, impactful and 7 more...
-
Words that piss me off....
What word really gets under your skin, drives you crazy, nuts or simply makes you see red?
like, far out, man, dude, takeaway, outside the box, utilize, frequent flyer, aversion, backlog, downsizing, audacity and 1 more...
-
words my students purport to love
utilize, pudding, Indeed, kumquat, spleen, schadenfreude, slush, juxtapose, discombobulate, brackish, resuscitate, vapid
-
I do not like them, Sam I Am
Words that, for various reasons, I wish we could do without.
copacetic, gamut, horehound, lewd, membrane, metrics, mucous, mucus, negligee, nostril, odious, odor and 143 more...
-
fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
-
AbraxasZugzwang's Words
atavism, abraxas, sisyphean, frust, fetus-in-fetu, arhythmically, queef, epidemiology, abecedarian, troglodyte, chiaroscuro, philology and 631 more...
-
Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
-
artoparts's Words
illation, finite, edify, abide, abrade, vouch, amiss, vociferate, perusing, techantiquery, rigamarole, holon and 615 more...
-
Mimi
sober, rhetoric, oratory, ergo, venom, diaphragm, Medieval, piety, incognito, ruse, calamity, evidence and 251 more...
-
pcofdirt's Words
besmirched, befuddled, ai, sanguineous, antidisestablishm..., ablation, ascertain, ascerbic, aardvark, begot, benign, buggery and 118 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for utilize.

reesetee I despize utilize. Feb 3, 2010
bilby But when should they utilise utilise? Feb 3, 2010
selliebee Is actually a fine word, but it tends to vex when my students use it to sound more grandiose Feb 3, 2010
bilby Why do you ask, jennarennpicklemistressofthesaltplains? Oct 10, 2008
jennarenn Who says that nicknames have to be short? I'd argue that it can be long with a nice flow. Nov 2, 2007
reesetee Even if that were to happen, I still wouldn't use it. Oct 31, 2007
npydyuan I'm still hoping/wishing this word could mean "to infuse with utility; to increase the utility of something"
That would, in fact, utilize "utilize." Oct 31, 2007
uselessness Well said. That is a good rule of thumb. Oct 31, 2007
cathari Also, and this is a bit of a more subtle thing, I find myself disagreeing that active voice is truly preferable to passive voice. It's a decent guideline to get at the problem, but the underlying thing that often correlates with active voice making for better sentences is not, in fact, a matter of the verbs-- it's a matter of the nouns.
Instead of "use active voice rather than passive", I would suggest "always make the most important noun in the sentence be the subject." This puts the emphasis of the sentence where it belongs. Of course, this often does correlate to using active voice, but not always.
For instance, I would argue that "the document was signed this afternoon" is better than "the managers signed the document this afternoon" in cases where no one really cares *who* signed it nearly as much as they care that the document has finally been signed. On the other hand, if we were wondering whether it was signed by the managers themselves or by some proxy, the latter would probably be a better sentence. The subject is the focus of the sentence, and as such it should involve the noun that the sentence is meant to tell us about.
Oct 31, 2007
uselessness Haha, aren't nicknames supposed to be short? Few words are as awkward to type as "uselessness," but well, you found one. I can fully understand people shortening it to just u. ;-) Oct 31, 2007
cathari I agree with utilizelessness (who I think has acquired a new nickname now) that varying your word choice really isn't about trying desperately for synonyms. It's about finding new ways to describe things, and rearranging your sentences if need be (especially since, of course, you're also supposed to vary sentence structure). "Vary your word choice" is one of those things that might be useful in fourth grade but shouldn't be clung to as the writer becomes more sophisticated, and it's also far less important of a rule than "be simple and clear".
One thing that makes me wince is when beginning writers think they have to keep coming up with new synonyms for "said" in order to vary word choice, and aforementioned synonyms don't exactly fit with what is happening in the story. Small and common words like "said" are, in fact, invisible-- no one will notice if you repeat them, but they sure as heck will notice if you have to resort to "expounded" or somesuch. Some words are simply so common that people don't notice their being repeated; what one wants to avoid repeating is unusual words and especially descriptive ones. I.e. don't describe every blue thing in the story as "azure", and, for that matter, don't tack on "big" before every noun in your description (I once tutored a student who did that, and while "big" is fairly common, it was still noticeable that she had to keep telling us of the bigness of every object in the house. It started to feel like a fairy tale about giants after a while.)
Oct 31, 2007
skipvia I'm not so sure that implement doesn't belong on cringeworthy corporate buzzwords, though. Oct 31, 2007
reesetee I've always been glad you didn't choose utilizelessness. :-) Oct 31, 2007
uselessness Ugh. Variation in writing is one thing; throwing around extraneous utilizes to accomplish that is another. The best way to avoid saying use over and over is to structure sentences differently, perhaps with different tenses. "Use" is so generic anyway, which makes for poor writing in the first place.
It's similar to the "be" verb rule: Always avoid using being, is, was, are, am, and been. Active voice is always preferable. Finally, if you do have to find a synonym for "use," try implement, activate, apply, or some other more descriptive verb.
Hmmm... perhaps I've found a second meaning for my username? Oct 31, 2007
seanahan I seem to remember being told to "vary" our language when writing. We were tought that you shouldn't overly use words like "use", and should use synonyms, like "utilize". Oct 31, 2007
cathari If it does more than substitute for "use", why can't anyone point out exactly what it is doing? My boyfriend said the same thing, that he found it useful (utilizeful? =P) and yet was not able to pinpoint/explain what he thought the difference was. I'll believe and embrace the distinction when someone explains to me what it is. Oct 30, 2007
reesetee In my office, they'd probably consider that "normal" word use. *shudder*
But it is funny. Think I'll give it a shot one day. Oct 17, 2007
yarb Hemingway and his posh chums have fun over-using this word in Fiesta / The Sun Also Rises. E.g. (not an actual quote) What do you say we utilize the hotel bar, darling?
In that sense I think it has comic potential. For example, if I were to go into the office next door to mine and ask if I could utilize the stapler, I think that would be funny. Most people, though, would probably think I was being a jerk. Oct 17, 2007
reesetee True. Although I always have to think for five minutes to remember how to pronounce it. Oct 17, 2007
npydyuan You know what word is nice, though? inutile Oct 17, 2007
reesetee Nope. It's just too ugly. ;-) Oct 17, 2007
npydyuan "Utilize" could be "to infuse with utility; to increase the utility of something Oct 17, 2007
abraxaszugzwang I'm really surprised at how many people hate this word. I think it's so much more than a substitution for "use." Jan 19, 2007
tomsteele I utilize my delete key every time I see this "word." Dec 24, 2006
andrew.simone All it simply does is make 'use' sound scientific. Jacques Barzun once wrote about the wretchedness of '-ize' words. Dec 8, 2006