utile

comparative more utile · superlative most utile

1. archaicUseful.

   technologists (the so-called Eggheads) all over the world were trying to make publicly utile and commercially rewarding the extremely elaborate and still very expensive, hydrodynamic telephones and other miserable gadgets […]

   1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 16

   Antonyms: inutile, see more at unuseful

plural utiles

1. economicsA theoretical unit of measure of utility, for indicating a supposed quantity of satisfaction derived from an economic transaction.

   [T]he ‘happiness utile’ does not exist, at least not yet.

   2006, "Economic Roundup Autumn 2006," www.treasury.gov.au (Australian Government Treasury) (retrieved 20 Oct 2013)

   1 more example

   Rational agents always maximize the number of utiles procured; that is, they will always choose those outcomes which promise to produce the most utiles.

   2002, Louis Groarke, The Good Rebel: Understanding Freedom and Morality, →ISBN, page 29

   Synonyms: hedon, util