useful Hear it!

useful Definition

use·ful (yo̵̅o̅s′fəl)

adjective

that can be used to advantage; serviceable; helpful; beneficial; often, having practical utility

Related Forms:

useful Synonyms

useful

modif.

valuable, beneficial, serviceable; see helpful 1.

useful Usage Examples

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • find: The aim is for 75 % of attendees to find the training useful.

Modifies a noun

  • tool: They are a useful tool for carrying out a wide range of activity.
  • websites: There are some really useful websites check them out for further details.
  • link: Next to the search box there are some useful links.
  • tip: More Fizzy Tips next time... Thanks, Norma, for these useful tips.
  • resource: There are some useful resources on the Internet which a few searches will uncover.
  • information: There is a lot of useful information to be found here.

Modifying Another Word

  • particularly: These are particularly useful for people with very dry eyes.
  • extremely: These leaflets would be extremely useful to distribute to staff.
  • especially: Especially useful for longer vehicles or vehicles with restricted rear vision.

Infinitive complement

  • refer: It is useful to refer to the example of Wilkin and Sons, which hon.
  • know: It is useful to know how many handsets are in use at any one time.
  • investigate: People with visual difficulties may find it useful to investigate access.adobe.com - services provided to improve the accessibility of Acrobat documents.
  • consider: There were several ideas here that may be useful to consider within Napier's Educational Research Network.
  • compare: It was also agreed that it would be useful to compare relative usage of different areas of the website.
  • summarize: To set the background, it may be useful to summarize the views of the panelists from their position papers.

Used with adjective complement

  • prove: A set of magazine files where journals can be kept in date order may prove useful here.
  • find: Which of these three sources do you find most useful for finding out about the raid?

Preposition: for

  • anyone: Useful for anyone involved, or planning to be involved, in humanitarian assistance.
  • purpose: Other uses The symbols are intended to be useful for all purposes in which the exact identity of a nucleotide may vary.
useful Quotes

[There is] a delusion that macro-economics is both viableanduseful (a delusionencouraged by its extensive use of mathematics, which must always impress politicians lacking any mathematical education, and which is really the nearest thing to the practice of magic that occurs among professional economists).

—Hayek, Friedrich August von

Heureux, qui comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage, Ou comme cestuy la'   qui conquit la toison, Et puis est retourne¤  , plein d'usage et raison, Vivre entre ses parents le reste de son a"  ge! Happy is he who, like Ulysses, has taken a wondrous journey Or has won the Golden Fleece, And then returns home wise and useful To live in his homeland the rest of his days.

—Bellay,Joachim du

A science is said to be useful if its development tends to accentuate the existing inequities in the distribution of wealth, or more directly promotes the destruction of human life.

—Hardy, Godfrey Harold

Etre un homme utile m'a paru toujours quelque chose de bien hideux. To be useful has always seemed to me quite hideous.

—Baudelaire, Charles

Ex virtute absoluto agere nihil aliud in nobis est, quam ex ductu Rationis agere, vivere, suum esse conservare (haec tria idem significant) ex fundamento proprium utile quaerendi. To act absolutely according to virtue is nothing else in us than to act under the guidance of reason, to live so, and to preserve one's being (these three have the same meaning) onthebasis of seeking what isusefulto oneself.

—Spinoza, Baruch also known as Benedict de Spinoza