August 28, 1998

utilize

(1) Am I alone in my absolute distaste for the word "utilize?" (2) Is there any real distinction between "utilize" and "use?"

(1) No.

(2) Yes.

Like many other verbs ending in -ize, utilize has been often condemned for being overly long, sounding like jargon, not adding any additional meaning, etc.

Indeed, utilize can often be no more than a pretentious substitute for use, and this should be avoided. However, utilize does have its own meaning: 'to turn to profitable use; to make a practical use for'. This is not the same sense as 'to bring into service', which is what use fundamentally means.

For example, "The teacher couldn't use the new computer" means something completely different from "The teacher couldn't utilize the new computer." The former means that the teacher didn't know how to turn it on, or didn't know what the mouse was for, or that it was broken or otherwise unavailable, or something like that--that the teacher could do nothing at all with the computer. The latter means that while the teacher could do something with the computer, he or she was unable to do something practical with it--use it in instruction, perhaps.

Since people tend to dislike utilize, it might be prudent to rewrite even a sentence where it is used correctly--"The teacher couldn't use the new computer effectively," perhaps, or something more specific. Still, when used in its proper sense, it is a valid word in English for which there is no other good synonym.

Utilize is first recorded in English in the early nineteenth century, though it didn't become common until the middle of the nineteenth century. It is a borrowing from French.