Utilitarian

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Utilitarian \U*til`i*ta"ri*an\, a. [See {Utility}.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. Of or pertaining to utility; consisting in utility; ?iming
        at utility as distinguished from beauty, ornament, etc.;
        sometimes, reproachfully, evincing, or characterized by, a
        regard for utility of a lower kind, or marked by a sordid


        spirit; as, utilitarian narrowness; a utilitarian
        indifference to art.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Of or pertaining to utilitarianism; supporting
        utilitarianism; as, the utilitarian view of morality; the
        Utilitarian Society. --J. S. Mill.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Utilitarian \U*til`i*ta"ri*an\, n.
     One who holds the doctrine of utilitarianism.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The utilitarians are for merging all the particular
           virtues into one, and would substitute in their place
           the greatest usefulness, as the alone principle to
           which every question respecting the morality of actions
           should be referred.                      --Chalmers.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           But what is a utilitarian? Simply one who prefers the
           useful to the useless; and who does not? --Sir W.
                                                    Hamilton.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  utilitarian
       adj 1: having a useful function; "utilitarian steel tables" [syn: {useful}]
       2: having utility often to the exclusion of values; "plain
          utilitarian kitchenware"
       n : someone who believes that the value of a thing depends on
           its utility

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  77 Moby Thesaurus words for "utilitarian":
     Cyrenaic, Eleatic, Epicurean, Megarian, Stoic, advantageous,
     animist, animistic, appropriate, atomistic, banausic, beneficial,
     breadwinning, businesslike, commercial, commodious, cosmotheistic,
     down-to-earth, eclectic, empirical, employable, eudaemonistic,
     existential, expedient, fitting, functional, good for, hard,
     hedonic, hedonist, hedonistic, helpful, humanist, humanistic,
     idealistic, instrumentalist, materialistic, matter-of-fact,
     mechanistic, metaphysical, moneymaking, monistic, naturalistic,
     nominalist, of general utility, of help, of service, of use,
     panlogistical, pantheistic, positivist, positivistic, practical,
     pragmatic, pragmatical, pragmatist, proper, prosaic, rationalistic,
     realist, realistic, scholastic, sensationalistic, serviceable,
     syncretistic, theistic, transcendentalist, transcendentalistic,
     unidealistic, unromantic, useful, vitalistic, voluntarist,
     voluntaristic, workaday, workday, working