When to Use Utilize

Is there a difference between utilize and use?

One of the most common symptoms of genre pressure¹ is the word utilize, which people employ as a fancy version of use. But is it?

When I started looking into utilize v. use, I had the impression that use means employ for a purpose while utilize means to use something in a new way, or to find a use for something. If you go looking for a self-proclaimed grammar expert, this is one of the answers you'll get, and I believed it too.

So I went looking for the etymology. Use comes from the Latin *usare² which comes from the Latin uti, meaning make use of. So far, so good. Utilize comes from the Latin utilis, or usable, which also comes from uti. So, way back in the day, they come from the same root.

At first glance, the etymology seems to suggest that utilize has the sense of find a use for, while use is just use. If that's true, then a lot of corporate slide presentations about utilizing resources take on the implication that people are wandering around trying to figure out what they can do with money, people, and raw materials. Maybe that's intentional; I don't know.

I started to find articles³ supporting the idea that utilize means use something in a way other than originally intended. Then I found an interesting essay by Scientist Sees Squirrel⁴, who points out that the people who believe utilize and use mean different things don't seem to agree with each other. He lists eight different opinions his readers volunteered about the two words. Then he says:

A word doesn’t mean what a writer thinks it means; it means what readers think it means. And readers don’t, it seems, agree on what distinction there is between use and utilize, or whether there’s any distinction at all.

Words mean something to your reader, and that might be more important than what they mean to you. If people have trouble agreeing on the meaning of utilize, then by utilizing⁵ it you are introducing ambiguity into your work.

To put it another way: whenever you find yourself writing the word utilize, it's fair to ask yourself if the word use would be just as good. Or ask yourself why you feel that utilize is better. Is it just fancier? Does it sound more businessy or sciencey? Are you talking about using something in a way other than its original intent? If so, would use obscure that meaning?

Fowler's Modern English claims that the difference in meaning between use and utilize has disappeared, and utilize is now just a long form of use. So where does this leave us? If the distinction is real, then it is confusing to many of your readers. If the distinction has disappeared, then there's almost never a reason to use utilize. As Mark Twain⁶ said: Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.  

1. I've decided I like this phrase I coined. Very useful.

2. The asterisk (*) means that this term can't be attested by historical texts.

3. See EliteEditing, Grammarist, and Merriam-Webster for example.

4. Stephen B. Heard, scientist and author.

5. I shouldn't have to say "see what I did there?" But I enjoy it.

6. I think this really is a Mark Twain quote.