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USEFULNESS
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The quality of being of practical use
Synonyms:
usefulness; utility
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("usefulness" is a kind of...):
quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)
Attribute:
useful; utile (being of use or service)
useless (having no beneficial use or incapable of functioning usefully)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "usefulness"):
detergence; detergency (detergent quality; the quality of having cleansing power)
function; purpose; role; use (what something is used for)
helpfulness (the property of providing useful assistance)
use (a particular service)
serviceability; serviceableness; usability; usableness; useableness (the quality of being able to provide good service)
instrumentality (the quality of being instrumental for some purpose)
practicality (concerned with actual use rather than theoretical possibilities)
practicability; practicableness (the quality of being usable)
Antonym:
uselessness (the quality of having no practical use)
Derivation:
useful (having a useful function)
Context examples:
And really his anxiety to be of use in the investigations we have been making, and his real usefulness in extracting, and copying, and fetching, and carrying, have been quite stimulating to us.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
While Uranus in Taurus won’t be friendly to Saturn, that only means it’s time to reinvent yourself—old structures that have outworn their usefulness will fall, and you can set up new ones.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections upon self.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
His lameness prevented him from taking much exercise; but a mind of usefulness and ingenuity seemed to furnish him with constant employment within.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
In her usefulness, in Fanny's excellence, in William's continued good conduct and rising fame, and in the general well-doing and success of the other members of the family, all assisting to advance each other, and doing credit to his countenance and aid, Sir Thomas saw repeated, and for ever repeated, reason to rejoice in what he had done for them all, and acknowledge the advantages of early hardship and discipline, and the consciousness of being born to struggle and endure.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I would entertain myself in forming and directing the minds of hopeful young men, by convincing them, from my own remembrance, experience, and observation, fortified by numerous examples, of the usefulness of virtue in public and private life.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Henrietta was exactly in that state of recently-improved views, of fresh-formed happiness, which made her full of regard and interest for everybody she had ever liked before at all; and Mrs Musgrove's real affection had been won by her usefulness when they were in distress.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Susan became the stationary niece, delighted to be so; and equally well adapted for it by a readiness of mind, and an inclination for usefulness, as Fanny had been by sweetness of temper, and strong feelings of gratitude.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
The usefulness of her staying!
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
The glory of heroism, of usefulness, of exertion, of endurance, made his own habits of selfish indulgence appear in shameful contrast; and he wished he had been a William Price, distinguishing himself and working his way to fortune and consequence with so much self-respect and happy ardour, instead of what he was!
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
