usage
UK /ˈjuːsɪd͡ʒ/ · US /ˈjusɪd͡ʒ/ noun
Forms usages usuage
- noun A custom or established practice.
- noun (uncountable) Custom, tradition.
- noun The act of using something; use, employment.
- noun Prevailing language style: how words are used among a populace. “In descriptive fact, word senses are established by usage.”
- noun Choice of language style (made by a speaker or writer). “usage prescriptions”
- noun (now archaic) Action towards someone; treatment, especially in negative sense.
Synonyms
use utilization utilisation employment exercise custom usance
Etymology
From Middle English usage, from Anglo-Norman and Old French usage. By surface analysis, use + -age.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The act of using; mode of using or treating; treatment; conduct with respect to a person or a thing; as, good usage; ill usage; hard usage.
- noun Manners; conduct; behavior. [Obs.]
Etymology [F. usage, LL. usaticum. See Use.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “usage”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details