Usage notes

Many style guides have advised against utilize and utilise'', arguing that the simpler verb use is always preferable (and analogously, that the noun ''use'' is preferable to ''utilization'' and ''utilisation'').Sir Ernest Gowers 1965 ''The Complete Plain Words'' Oxford: Oxford University PressEric Partridge 1973 ''Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English'' England: Penguin BooksJohn E. Kahn (ed) 1985 ''The Right Word at the Right Time'' London:Readers DigestPam Peters 1995 ''The Cambridge Australian English Style Guide'' Cambridge:Cambridge University Press When used simply as a synonym in ordinary writing (as in “please ''utilise the rear door when exiting the aircraft”) it can strike readers as pretentious, and so should be used sparingly.New Oxford American Dictionary 3rd edition (c) 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc. American novelist (David Foster Wallace) calls it a puff word.He continues: "Since it does nothing that good old use doesn't do, its extra letters and syllables don't make a writer seem smarter. I tell my students that using utilize makes you seem either pompous or so insecure that you'll use pointlessly big words in an attempt to look smart." Others argue that utilise has other senses, and is acceptable or even necessary (instead of (term)) in such senses. One such sense is “make best use of” (profitable, practical use, not just general use), as in “if we fail to utilise all resources, we will fail” – here the nuance is not simply “use”, but “make best use of”. Further, in American usage, (term) can imply use outside an object’s intended purpose.

Usage notes

Many style guides have advised against utilize and utilise'', arguing that the simpler verb use is always preferable (and analogously, that the noun ''use'' is preferable to ''utilization'' and ''utilisation'').Sir Ernest Gowers 1965 ''The Complete Plain Words'' Oxford: Oxford University PressEric Partridge 1973 ''Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English'' England: Penguin BooksJohn E. Kahn (ed) 1985 ''The Right Word at the Right Time'' London:Readers DigestPam Peters 1995 ''The Cambridge Australian English Style Guide'' Cambridge:Cambridge University Press When used simply as a synonym in ordinary writing (as in “please ''utilise the rear door when exiting the aircraft”) it can strike readers as pretentious, and so should be used sparingly.New Oxford American Dictionary 3rd edition (c) 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc. American novelist (David Foster Wallace) calls it a puff word.He continues: "Since it does nothing that good old use doesn't do, its extra letters and syllables don't make a writer seem smarter. I tell my students that using utilize makes you seem either pompous or so insecure that you'll use pointlessly big words in an attempt to look smart." Others argue that utilise has other senses, and is acceptable or even necessary (instead of (term)) in such senses. One such sense is “make best use of” (profitable, practical use, not just general use), as in “if we fail to utilise all resources, we will fail” – here the nuance is not simply “use”, but “make best use of”. Further, in American usage, (term) can imply use outside an object’s intended purpose.