UTILITIES
Noun
utilities
plural of utility
Source: Wiktionary
UTILITY
U*til"i*ty, n. Etym: [OE. utilite, F. utilité, L. utilitas, fr.
utilis useful. See Utile.]
1. The quality or state of being useful; usefulness; production of
good; profitableness to some valuable end; as, the utility of manure
upon land; the utility of the sciences; the utility of medicines.
The utility of the enterprises was, however, so great and obvious
that all opposition proved useless. Macaulay.
2. (Polit. Econ.)
Definition: Adaptation to satisfy the desires or wants; intrinsic value.
See Note under Value, 2.
Value in use is utility, and nothing else, and in political economy
should be called by that name and no other. F. A. Walker.
3. Happiness; the greatest good, or happiness, of the greatest
number, -- the foundation of utilitarianism. J. S. Mill.
Syn.
– Usefulness; advantageous; benefit; profit; avail; service.
– Utility, Usefulness. Usefulness has an Anglo-Saxon prefix,
utility is Latin; and hence the former is used chiefly of things in
the concrete, while the latter is employed more in a general and
abstract sense. Thus, we speak of the utility of an invention, and
the usefulness of the thing invented; of the utility of an
institution, and the usefulness of an individual. So beauty and
utility (not usefulness) are brought into comparison. Still, the
words are often used interchangeably.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition