Meaning of useful in English

useful
adjective
us
/ˈjuːs.fəl/ uk
/ˈjuːs.fəl/
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A2
effective; helping you to do or achieve something:
A good knife is probably one of the most useful things you can have in a kitchen.
Do the exercises serve any useful purpose?
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
useful
  • usefulThese useful gadgets should find a home in every kitchen.
  • helpfulThey gave us some really helpful advice.
  • valuableHe was able to provide the police with some valuable information.
  • invaluableThe Internet is an invaluable resource for teachers.
  • constructiveIt was a very constructive discussion.
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More examplesFewer examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Useful or advantageous
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Idioms

come in useful
make yourself useful
(Definition of useful from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

useful | Intermediate English

useful
adjective
us
/ˈjus·fəl/
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helping you to do or obtain something:
Your advice was very useful, saving me a lot of time.

usefully

adverb us
/ˈjus·fə·li/
I was usefully occupied packing dishes all morning.

usefulness

noun [ U ] us
/ˈjus·fəl·nəs/
There is no question of the usefulness of aspirin.
(Definition of useful from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of useful

useful
The most worthless is ethics, but the most useful one is proctology.
From CNN
He added he feels there are more people who have information that could be useful.
From NOLA.com
Some of them won't sound very useful at first.
From Slate Magazine
Instead, the brain evolved to see the world the way it was useful to see in the past.
From Huffington Post
A sports complex might have been a more useful idea.
From NOLA.com
But she also said that this data could be useful for anyone looking to gain a better understanding of his or her health.
From Slate Magazine
A very useful part of these apps is that they highlight where you are in the problem, breaking them down to each little step.
From Wired
If you need to power up something a little bigger than a phone, a power inverter might be a useful tool.
From CNN
And that's something that's useful for the application.
From The Atlantic
We're just trying to make it useful for people.
From Wired
Another very useful approach you might consider if no one else to shares your logins.
From Gizmodo
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
What is the pronunciation of useful?
 
A2

Translations of useful

in Chinese (Traditional)
有用的，有效的, 有助益的…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
有用的，有效的, 有帮助的…
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in Spanish
útil, útil [masculine-feminine, singular]…
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in Portuguese
útil…
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in more languages
in Marathi
in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Dutch
in Hindi
in Gujarati
in Danish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Urdu
in Ukrainian
in Russian
in Telugu
in Arabic
in Bengali
in Czech
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Korean
in Italian
उपयोगी…
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役に立つ, 役（やく）に立（た）つ…
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faydalı, yararlı…
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utile…
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útil…
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nuttig…
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उपयोगी…
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ઉપયોગી…
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nyttig…
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berguna…
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nützlich…
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nyttig, brukbar, til nytte…
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کار آمد…
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корисний, придатний…
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полезный…
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పనికివచ్చేది…
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مُفيد…
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প্রয়োজনীয় / ব্যবহার্য / দরকারী…
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užitečný…
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berguna…
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ที่มีประโยชน์…
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hữu dụng…
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użyteczny, przydatny…
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유용한…
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utile…
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usefulness

Word of the Day

ingenious

UK
/ɪnˈdʒiː.ni.əs/
US
/ɪnˈdʒiː.ni.əs/

(of a person) very intelligent and skilful, or (of a thing) skilfully made or planned and involving new ideas and methods

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