utile
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of utile
1475–85; < Old French < Latin ūtilis, equivalent to ūt ( ī ) to use + -ilis -ile
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But the words pleasant and useful suggest a possible way forward: They invoke the Roman poet Horace’s two-pronged injunction for art—that it be both dulce et utile.
From Slate • Mar. 20, 2017
He had always cherished the fact that his wife made objects not only attractive but utile, which should have made them more valuable, not less.
From Salon • Apr. 18, 2011
His ambivalence seems to surface in the range of diction: the arty "utile," the cliché "arm and a leg," the vulgar rhetorical question.
From Salon • Apr. 18, 2011
The latest examples of the utile are handsomely represented.
From Time Magazine Archive
"This 'Hand-book' cannot fail to assist the best taste; utile et dulce have been carefully blended, and the descriptive letter-press has evidently been given by a well-informed mind."
From My Knitting Book by Lambert, Miss
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
