Useful
adjective
Able to help, improve, or serve a purpose.
Computers are very useful tools for research.
Often appears as...
- useful tool
- useful information
adjective
In computing, capable of being used.
The tool is useful only when the user knows how to operate it.
Often appears as...
- useful software
- useful feature
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
adjective
In business, producing a result, a profit.
The consultation turned out to be very useful, as it helped boost our company's profits.
Often appears as...
- useful investment
- useful strategy
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
adjective
In law, able to be used for legal purposes.
Your testimony will be useful in proving the defendant's guilt.
Often appears as...
- useful evidence
- useful testimony
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
adjective
Able to help, improve, or serve a purpose.
Computers are very useful tools for research.
Often appears as...
- useful tool
- useful information
adjective
In computing, capable of being used.
The tool is useful only when the user knows how to operate it.
Often appears as...
- useful software
- useful feature
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
adjective
In business, producing a result, a profit.
The consultation turned out to be very useful, as it helped boost our company's profits.
Often appears as...
- useful investment
- useful strategy
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
adjective
In law, able to be used for legal purposes.
Your testimony will be useful in proving the defendant's guilt.
Often appears as...
- useful evidence
- useful testimony
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
Definition 1 of 4
Pro Tip 1/3Broad Utility
Think of 'useful' for items or knowledge that simplify tasks or solve problems in various situations.
A smartphone is useful for staying connected on the go.
Pro Tip 2/3Implicit Value
'Useful' implies something has value because it is practical or serves a clear purpose.
Knowing English is useful for global communication.
Pro Tip 3/3Subjective Perspective
Remember 'useful' can be subjective; what's useful to one person may not be to another.
This book is useful to me for my thesis, but maybe not for leisure reading.
Pro Tip 1/3Broad Utility
Think of 'useful' for items or knowledge that simplify tasks or solve problems in various situations.
A smartphone is useful for staying connected on the go.
Pro Tip 2/3Implicit Value
'Useful' implies something has value because it is practical or serves a clear purpose.
Knowing English is useful for global communication.
Pro Tip 3/3Subjective Perspective
Remember 'useful' can be subjective; what's useful to one person may not be to another.
This book is useful to me for my thesis, but maybe not for leisure reading.
Pro Tip 1/3Broad Utility
Think of 'useful' for items or knowledge that simplify tasks or solve problems in various situations.
A smartphone is useful for staying connected on the go.
Pro Tip 2/3Implicit Value
'Useful' implies something has value because it is practical or serves a clear purpose.
Knowing English is useful for global communication.
Pro Tip 3/3Subjective Perspective
Remember 'useful' can be subjective; what's useful to one person may not be to another.
This book is useful to me for my thesis, but maybe not for leisure reading.
Compare with
advantageousbeneficialconstructiveeffectivefunctionalhelpfulpracticalvaluable
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Video examples
Does grammar matter? -...
But while the debate between prescriptivism and descriptivism continues, the two are not mutually exclusive. At its best, prescriptivism is useful for informing people about the most common established patterns at a given point in time. This is important, not only for formal contexts, but it also makes communication easier between non-native speakers
Video examples
How to understand power...
which brings us finally to what you can do to become more powerful in public life. Here, it's useful to think in terms of literacy. Your challenge is to learn how to read power and write power. To read power means to pay attention to as many texts of power as you can. I don't mean books only.
Video examples
5 tips to improve your...
Using the tools at their disposal, they'll eliminate everything but the most useful and reliable information. There are many different ways of approaching critical thinking, but here's one five-step process that may help you solve any number of problems. formulate your question.
Video examples
What happens when our...
When the A.I. is weak, it performs useful or amusing actions that cause its user to smile. When the A.I. becomes superintelligent, it realizes that there is a more effective way to achieve this take control of the world and stick electrodes into the facial muscles of humans
Video examples
How to use a semicolon -...
In fact, it's the semicolon's half-half status that makes it useful. It's stronger than a comma, and less final than a period. It fills the spaces in between, and for that reason, it has some specific and important tasks. For one, it can clarify ideas in a sentence
Video examples
Thinking your way out of...
genuinely find useful that last part is really important because it speaks to a contradiction in impostor logic because when you think about it what we're really saying is other people are so stupid they don't realize we're incompetent to imagine if you'd come up
Video examples
Thought-provoking...
environment because they have a very complex communicative system based on non-verbal communication by observing many different groups of chimpanzees catcher hopes to compile the world's first chimp dictionary the twycross chimps are a useful group
Video examples
Drones Sacrificed for...
be very useful and figuring out which layers are iron-rich which layers are sulfur rich within the caldera as a whole there's certainly life coating the walls as you go down on some of the surfaces down at the bottom almost
Video examples
Questions No One Knows...
far more sophisticated and useful than electromagnetic waves. Maybe all the action takes place inside the mysterious recently discovered dark matter, or dark energy, that appear to account for most of the universe's mass.
Video examples
The science of skin...
and more eumelanin, giving skin a darker tone. This built-in sun shield helped protect them from melanoma, likely making them evolutionarily fitter and capable of passing this useful trait on to new generations.
Video examples
Does grammar matter? -...
But while the debate between prescriptivism and descriptivism continues, the two are not mutually exclusive. At its best, prescriptivism is useful for informing people about the most common established patterns at a given point in time. This is important, not only for formal contexts, but it also makes communication easier between non-native speakers
Video examples
How to understand power...
which brings us finally to what you can do to become more powerful in public life. Here, it's useful to think in terms of literacy. Your challenge is to learn how to read power and write power. To read power means to pay attention to as many texts of power as you can. I don't mean books only.
Video examples
5 tips to improve your...
Using the tools at their disposal, they'll eliminate everything but the most useful and reliable information. There are many different ways of approaching critical thinking, but here's one five-step process that may help you solve any number of problems. formulate your question.
Video examples
What happens when our...
When the A.I. is weak, it performs useful or amusing actions that cause its user to smile. When the A.I. becomes superintelligent, it realizes that there is a more effective way to achieve this take control of the world and stick electrodes into the facial muscles of humans
Video examples
How to use a semicolon -...
In fact, it's the semicolon's half-half status that makes it useful. It's stronger than a comma, and less final than a period. It fills the spaces in between, and for that reason, it has some specific and important tasks. For one, it can clarify ideas in a sentence
Video examples
Thinking your way out of...
genuinely find useful that last part is really important because it speaks to a contradiction in impostor logic because when you think about it what we're really saying is other people are so stupid they don't realize we're incompetent to imagine if you'd come up
Video examples
Thought-provoking...
environment because they have a very complex communicative system based on non-verbal communication by observing many different groups of chimpanzees catcher hopes to compile the world's first chimp dictionary the twycross chimps are a useful group
Video examples
Drones Sacrificed for...
be very useful and figuring out which layers are iron-rich which layers are sulfur rich within the caldera as a whole there's certainly life coating the walls as you go down on some of the surfaces down at the bottom almost
Video examples
Questions No One Knows...
far more sophisticated and useful than electromagnetic waves. Maybe all the action takes place inside the mysterious recently discovered dark matter, or dark energy, that appear to account for most of the universe's mass.
Video examples
The science of skin...
and more eumelanin, giving skin a darker tone. This built-in sun shield helped protect them from melanoma, likely making them evolutionarily fitter and capable of passing this useful trait on to new generations.
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Robert Baden-Powell
English Soldier
Happiness doesn't come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.
Quote examples
Emily Oster
American Economist
I tell my micro students everything I teach them is important, but the truth is that some things are more useful than others, and opportunity cost is near the top.
Quote examples
J. Robert Oppenheimer
American Physicist
It is a profound and necessary truth that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they were found because it was possible to find them.
Quote examples
Edward de Bono
English Psychologist
The purpose of science is not to analyze or describe but to make useful models of the world. A model is useful if it allows us to get use out of it.
Quote examples
Charles Spurgeon
British Clergyman
I do not doubt that we would become more useful if we praised God more, and others would join us, for they would see that God has blessed us.
Quote examples
Dalai Lama
Tibetan Leader
The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life. It should be something useful, something good.
Quote examples
Terry Pratchett
English Author
It's useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.
Quote examples
Geisha Williams
American Businesswoman
I liked helping my parents, feeling useful, feeling smart.
Quote examples
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German Writer
What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.
Quote examples
Alain Ducasse
French Chef
The world forgets about people who are not useful.
Quote examples
Robert Baden-Powell
English Soldier
Happiness doesn't come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.
Quote examples
Emily Oster
American Economist
I tell my micro students everything I teach them is important, but the truth is that some things are more useful than others, and opportunity cost is near the top.
Quote examples
J. Robert Oppenheimer
American Physicist
It is a profound and necessary truth that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they were found because it was possible to find them.
Quote examples
Edward de Bono
English Psychologist
The purpose of science is not to analyze or describe but to make useful models of the world. A model is useful if it allows us to get use out of it.
Quote examples
Charles Spurgeon
British Clergyman
I do not doubt that we would become more useful if we praised God more, and others would join us, for they would see that God has blessed us.
Quote examples
Dalai Lama
Tibetan Leader
The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life. It should be something useful, something good.
Quote examples
Terry Pratchett
English Author
It's useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.
Quote examples
Geisha Williams
American Businesswoman
I liked helping my parents, feeling useful, feeling smart.
Quote examples
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German Writer
What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.
Quote examples
Alain Ducasse
French Chef
The world forgets about people who are not useful.
Example 1 of 10
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