# When should you use "utilize," or should you always utilize "use"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-should-you-use-utilize-or-should-you-always-utilize-use/173969 "2003-05-08T21:02:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-should-you-use-utilize-or-should-you-always-utilize-use/173969/1 "2003-05-08T21:02:01Z")
Style guides usually recommend that writers avoid the word “utilize” and use “use” instead. Strunk & White’s _Elements of Style_ is particularly blunt: “_ **Utilize.** _ Prefer _use._” This [web-based style manual](http://garbl.home.attbi.com/stylemanual/tthruu.htm) goes into a bit more detail: > [@](#): > > **usage, use, utilize, utilization** _Use_ is usually the preferred all-purpose word as a noun and verb. _Usage_ means habitual or preferred practice in grammar, law, manners, diplomacy and certain other fields. _Utilize_ is overstated, pretentious and formal. Simplify. Try using _use: He used the dishwasher._ Not: _He utilized the dishwasher._ I have no quarrel with this advice – most times that I see “utilize,” “use” would have worked better and seemed more like casual speech, almost always a good thing for good writing. (The dishwasher example above is a perfect illustration.) But I do wonder: are there circumstances in which “utilize” is a better – or even a more correct – word choice than “use”? ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-should-you-use-utilize-or-should-you-always-utilize-use/173969/2 "2003-05-08T21:26:42Z")
You would typically utilize the word “use” when you are writing a very simple sentence. And you’d use “utilize” if you just wanted to show off. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-should-you-use-utilize-or-should-you-always-utilize-use/173969/3 "2003-05-08T21:33:29Z")
Yes. To _utilize_ something is to make it useful, to give it utility in performing a task. For example, makers of bulletproof vests use Kevlar; before that, however, they utilized Kevlar in the design of the bulletproof vests. A recent craze for vividly colored skiwear resulted when an entrepeneur utilized scraps of synthetic fleece to make new fabric. ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-should-you-use-utilize-or-should-you-always-utilize-use/173969/4 "2003-05-08T21:37:42Z")
Yes. From _Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage_ 934 (1994): > [@](#): > > **utilize** Usage writers dislike _utilize_ because they regard it as a needlessly long and pretentious substitute for _use_. They generally recommend either that it be disdained altogether or that it be used (not utilized) only when it has then meaning “to turn to practical use or account.” That is, in fact, almost invariably the meaning of _utilize_ in actual usage: > > \ -Milton S. Eisenhower, _Johns Hopkins Mag._, February 1966 > > \<. . . suggesting novel ways of utilizing Barnard’s facilities\> -Jamienne Studley, _Barnard Alumnae_, Winter 1971 > > \<. . . women who want to work at jobs that utilize their fulkl potential\> -Bella S. Abzug, _Saturday Rev._, 7 Aug. 1976 > > _Use_ could certainly be substituted for _utilize_ in any of these passages, but not without some loss of connotation. _Utilize_ is a distinct word having distinct implications. More than _use_, it suggests a deliberate decision or effort to employ something (or someone) for a practical purpose. Its greatest sins are that it has two more syllables than _use_ and that it ends with the dreaded _-ize_. It is a common word, nevertheless, and every indication is that it will continue to be one. Likewise, from Bryan A. Garner, _A Dictionary of Modern American Usage_ (1998): > [@](#): > > **use; utilize; utilization.** _Use_ is the all-purpose noun and verb, ordinarily to be preferred over _utilize_ and _utilization_. _Utilize_ is both more abstract and more favorable connotatively than _use_. ---
**Author:** ![daniel801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@daniel801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daniel801)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-should-you-use-utilize-or-should-you-always-utilize-use/173969/5 "2003-05-08T21:50:49Z")
You use a method. You utilize a methodology. ---
**Author:** ![auntnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@auntnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntnut)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-should-you-use-utilize-or-should-you-always-utilize-use/173969/6 "2003-05-08T23:13:23Z")
How much wood could a woodchuck ch… oops… sorry… my bad… misunderstood the theme of the thread. as you were!😃