Noun

(en noun)

The act of improving]]; advancement or growth; [[promote, promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration; as, the improvement of the mind, of land, roads, etc.

* (Robert South)

I look upon your city as the best place of improvement .

* (Hugh Blair)

Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.

* , chapter=19

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.

The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; a turning to good account; practical application, as of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.

* (Samuel Clarke)

A good improvement of his reason.

* (John Tillotson)

I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.

The state of being improved; betterment; advance; also, that which is improved; as, the new edition is an improvement on the old.

* (Joseph Addison)

The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.

Increase; growth; progress; advance.

* (Joseph Addison)

There is a design of publishing the history of architecture, with its several improvements and decays.

* (Robert South)

Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.

(plural): Valuable additions or betterments, as buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.

(Patent Laws): A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.

Noun

(utilities)

The state or condition of being useful; usefulness.

Something that is useful.

(economics) The ability of a commodity to satisfy needs or wants; the satisfaction experienced by the consumer of that commodity.

(business, finance) A service provider, such as an electric company or water company; or , the securities of such a provider.

(computing) A software program designed to perform a single task or a small range of tasks, often to help manage and tune computer hardware, an operating system or application software.

I've bought a new disk utility that can recover deleted files.

(sports) The ability to play multiple positions.