Useful vs Important - What's the difference?
useful | important |
Having a practical or beneficial use.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= '', ''useful for '' and ''useful to ''. The words ''useful to'' are also found in construction such as ''It is useful to do'', in which ''to marks an infinitive rather than being a preposition.
Having relevant and crucial value.
:
*
*:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=20 *1988, (Robert Ferro), Second Son :
*:For this was the most important thing, that when a person felt strongly about an issue in life, it mustn’t be ignored by others; for if it was, everything subsequent to it would turn out badly, even though there should seem to be no direct connection.
*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title=
As adjectives the difference between useful and important
is that useful is having a practical or beneficial use while important is having relevant and crucial value.useful
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
The Adaptable Gas Turbine, passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}
Usage notes
* Prepositions: useful'' is used in ''useful forSynonyms
* noteful * serviceable * utilitarianAntonyms
* unuseful * useless * harmfulimportant
English
Adjective
(en adjective)citation, passage=The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen.
Katrina G. Claw
Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.}}