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utilitarian

UK/juːˌtɪlɪˈtɛəɹi.ən/US/juˌtɪləˈtɛɹi.ən/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,960 of 15,258mostly written

Utilitarian means made for use rather than beauty. A utilitarian design, utilitarian buildings, plain and utilitarian.

As a criticism it means ugly and as praise it means honest, and the tone decides which. In philosophy, utilitarian names the doctrine that the right act is whichever produces the most good, and the word was coined for it.

Definitions of utilitarian

  1. 1adjectiveutilitarianMade for use rather than beauty.C2

    “The office had plain, utilitarian furniture: grey metal desks and hard chairs.”

utilitarian is a quality.

Where it comes from

From utility plus -arian, coined by Jeremy Bentham for his moral doctrine.

  1. Latin

    ūtilitās

  2. Old French

    utilite

  3. Middle English

    utilite

  4. English

    utility

  5. English, today

    utilitarian

Built from

  • utilitet · Old French — usefulness
  • uti · Latin — to use

From utility + arian. coined by Jeremy Bentham as early as 1781, and popularized by his student John Stuart Mill, who mistakenly attributed the term to John Galt. utility comes from Middle English utilite, from Old French utilite, utilitet (“usefulness”), from Latin ūtilitās, from uti (“to use”). by surface analysis, utile + -ity.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

utilitarian in the wild

  • In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that lead to the greatest good for the greatest number.

    Utilitarianism

  • The felicific calculus is an algorithm formulated by utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham for calculating the degree or amount of pleasure that a specific action is likely to induce.

    Felicific calculus

  • Many see problems with the morality of utilitarian bioethics, citing moral dilemmas in medical research and triage for example.

    Utilitarian bioethics

  • The most common alternative is given by the utilitarian rule (or other welfarist rules), which identify the spirit of liberal democracy with the equal consideration of interests.

    Majority rule

  • For rule utilitarians, the correctness of a rule is determined by the amount of good it brings about when followed.

    Rule utilitarianism

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the utilite family

utility

utilitarian — used about once every 16,706 pages · #12,960 · point at the bar for the others

  • utilitarianism