Scott Bush

Language is a beautiful and varied concept, with room enough for all manner of style, voice, and of course, word choice. As one who often edits the writing of others (or wishes he'd had the opportunity to do so), I've encountered some word choices that seem to persist despite simpler, more direct options. One of these is the word "utilize," which in the vast majority of cases should have simply been "use."

What's the big deal? There isn't one, unless you also care about abominations like "drownd," "irregardless," or "new and improved." Oh, or if you're looking to minimize character counts in your tweets or texts: "use" represents a 50% reduction in letters! To be fair, though, people would probably just write "UZ" instead.

So what is the difference? It sort of depends on who you ask. From Webster's Dictionary, we have the following:

• Utilize - "to make use of: turn to practical use of"
• Use - "to put into action or service : avail oneself of"

Each definition sounds just about the same. And since they are so similar, there's (almost) no reason to use "utilize" in your sentences. Often, writers think that by substituting the three-syllable "utilize" where little ol' one-syllable "use" works just fine will help their writing sound educated, official or otherwise important. Nope; in fact, it usually does the opposite. Read these examples aloud and decide which sounds better:

1. "Be sure to utilize all the software functions when testing."
2. "Be sure to use all the software functions when testing."

"Use" sounds so much more... well, normal, in both cases.

Now that I've beat up on utilize for a while, I should mention that the word isn't completely without utility (sorry, couldn't resist). It has special meaning in some science and business applications, referring to how much/well something is being consumed, as in:

"This month my utilization rate is way up," the freelance business consultant said happily. ("Utilization" here measuring the amount of time worked as a percentage of available time.)

So the next time you find yourself about to write "utilize," stop and reconsider if that's the right word to use.

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