utilitarian
utili·tar·ian (yo̵̅o̅ til′ə ter′ē ən)
adjective
- of or having to do with utility
- stressing usefulness over beauty or other considerations
- made for or aiming at utility
- of, or having belief in, utilitarianism
Etymology: utilit(y) + -arian: coined (1781) by Jeremy Bentham
noun
a person who believes in utilitarianism
Converse of object
- enlighten: In other words, even enlightened utilitarians should stop being motivated by it.
Modifies a noun
- calculus: If one used a utilitarian calculus in this " your child or your dog?
- ware: Some of these undecorated utilitarian wares may once have been used for cooking.
- philosopher: This is the strain that runs from Hobbes through the classical utilitarian philosophers.
- ethic: He used a utilitarian ethic to justify lying to millions.
- calculation: It's a language that chimes with the propositional logic of the workplace, the language of league tables and utilitarian calculation.
- argument: Indeed, my own faith in freedom does not rest in the last resort on utilitarian arguments at all.
Used with adjective complement
- look: It looks utilitarian enough to bash through the bush, yet handsome enough to pick up the kids in.
- become: This site has shed some of its more fancy handles since we last reviewed it, becoming more utilitarian.
Noun used with modifier
- preference: Chapter Thesis The conception of welfare used by preference utilitarians and many modern welfare economists is that of want-satisfaction.
Modifying Another Word
- purely: Not all the stone quarried in the Dales was used for purely utilitarian purposes.
- strictly: The Land Rovers they produced a million miles away from the luxury Rover saloons, being of a strictly utilitarian nature.
- essentially: It is the sphere of adaptive behavior, and is essentially utilitarian.
- rather: The farm is a rather utilitarian building set just beyond another group of trees.
- too: Gerry went to the library but found their recipes too utilitarian for his and his rabbits ' tastes.
- very: What I have described so far is no doubt a very utilitarian and economic view of culture!
Preposition: in
- character: Mill's arguments of toleration can be described as utilitarian in character.
- appearance: Some were strictly utilitarian in appearance; others were beautifully decorated.
- style: Shops along Queensway are more utilitarian in style, whilst those found in Station Square have a quaint, village feel about them.
- design: Other additions followed, but they were utilitarian in design rather than handsome, which can be said for the main Georgian block.
I came to the conclusion that some more ascetic reason than mere enjoyment should be found if one wishes to travel in peace: to do things for fun smacks of levity, immoralityalmost, in our utilitarian world. And though personally I think the world is wrong, and I know in my heart of hearts that it is a most excellent reason to do things merely because one likes the doing of them, I would advise all those who wish to see unwrinkled brows in passport offices to start out ready labelled as entomologists, anthropologists, or whatever other - ology they think suitable and propitious.
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