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utility
(redirected from usefulness)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Legal, Financial, Wikipedia 0.04 sec.
utility, in economics: see value value, in economics, worth of a commodity in terms of other commodities, or in terms of money (see price ). Value depends on both desirability and scarcity. The marginal theory of value, pioneered in the late 19th cent.
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utility

(1) See utility program.

(2) Usefulness; fitness for a particular use. Utility is one of the six fundamental components of information security (see Parkerian Hexad). For example, if data are encrypted and the decryption key is unavailable, the breach of security is in the lack of utility of the data (they are still confidential, possessed, integral, authentic and available).


utility
1. 
a. a public service, such as the bus system; public utility
b. (as modifier): utility vehicle
2. Economics
a. the ability of a commodity to satisfy human wants
b. the amount of such satisfaction
3. Austral and NZ a small truck with an open body and low sides, often with a removable tarpaulin cover; pick-up
4. a piece of computer software designed for a routine task, such as examining or copying files

utility [yü′til·əd·ē]
(engineering)
One of the nonprocess (support) facilities for a manufacturing plant; usually considered as facilities for steam, cooling water, deionized water, electric power, refrigeration, compressed and instrument air, and effluent treatment.


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