VocabauraVOCABAURA

useful

adjective

Simple meaning

Having a practical or beneficial use.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

yoosfuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈjusfəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Having a practical or beneficial use.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Having a practical or beneficial use.

Used this way, useful is a reasonably familiar word with a mildly favourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Slightly positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Positive and appreciative
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use useful

  • “The girl felt motherly and useful.”adjective

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “useful”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

useful lifeuseful informationparticularly usefulespecially usefuluseful purposeextremely usefuluseful tooluseful knowledge

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • usefulnessnounDerived noun

    The quality of being of practical use.

  • usefullyadverbDerived adverb

    In a useful manner.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: having a practical or beneficial use

practicalutilitarian

Use This Word

See how this word sounds in a real sentence.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “useful” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.