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Useful vs Reliable - What's the difference?

useful | reliable |

As adjectives the difference between useful and reliable

is that useful is having a practical or beneficial use while reliable is suitable]] or fit to be [[rely on|relied on; worthy of dependence or reliance; trustworthy.

As a noun reliable is

something or someone or dependable.

useful

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Having a practical or beneficial use.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , title= 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 for '', ''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.

    Synonyms

    * noteful * serviceable * utilitarian

    Antonyms

    * unuseful * useless * harmful

    reliable

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Suitable]] or fit to be [[rely on, relied on; worthy of dependence or reliance; trustworthy
  • A reliable witness to the truth of the miracles. -- .
    The best means, and most reliable pledge, of a higher object. -- .
    According to General Livingston's humorous account, his own village of Elizabethtown was not much more reliable , being peopled in those agitated times by unknown, unrecommended strangers, guilty-looking Tories, and very knavish Whigs. --.
  • (signal processing, of a communication protocol) Such that either a sent packet will reach its destination, even if it requires retransmission, or the sender will be told that it didn't
  • Synonyms

    * secure * dependable

    Antonyms

    * unreliable

    Derived terms

    * reliableness * reliably * semireliable

    See also

    * (Reliability)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something or someone or dependable
  • the old reliables