Use vs. Usage — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman — Updated on October 5, 2023
Use refers to the act of employing something, while Usage denotes the manner or the frequency in which something is used.
Difference Between Use and Usage
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Use generally refers to the act of employing something for its intended or appropriate purpose. On the other hand, Usage often relates to the manner, customs, or habitual way in which words or things are used. When one speaks of the "use" of an item, they typically refer to the application or employment of that item in a practical context. In contrast, when discussing "usage," one might be highlighting the regularity, customary manner, or accepted conventions associated with that item.
For instance, the use of a tool might refer to employing it for its specific function, such as a hammer to drive a nail. However, the usage of a tool might discuss the frequency with which it's employed or the variations in methods across different regions or communities. Another point of distinction lies in linguistics. Use often pertains to the application of words or phrases, while usage refers to the conventions governing such applications.
A distinction can also be observed in context. Use is versatile and can be applied across various scenarios, be it objects, actions, or linguistics. Usage, however, often narrows down to linguistic conventions or habitual practices in specific contexts. It's also notable that while "use" can be both a noun and a verb, "usage" is primarily used as a noun.
Comparison Chart
Definition
Act of employing something
Manner or frequency of use
Linguistic Relevance
Application of words or phrases
Conventions governing such applications
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Contextual Focus
Broader: objects, actions, linguistics
Narrower: linguistic conventions, habitual practices
Grammatical Form
Can be both a noun and a verb
Primarily a noun
Examples
Use of tools, use of words
Usage of tools in specific contexts, language usage
Compare with Definitions
Use
The act of employing something for a purpose.
The use of solar energy is increasing globally.
Usage
Accepted linguistic conventions.
The usage of the term differs between British and American English.
Use
The ability or potential to be utilized.
This room has multiple uses.
Usage
Habitual or customary use.
The building was closed due to lack of usage.
Use
The occasion or need to employ.
I have no use for these old magazines.
Usage
The total amount used.
The water usage in the city has gone up this summer.
Use
To consume, take, or employ habitually.
Do you use sugar in your coffee?
Usage
The action of using something or the fact of being used
The usage of equipment
A survey of water usage
Use
Take, hold, or deploy (something) as a means of accomplishing or achieving something; employ
She used her key to open the front door
The poem uses simple language
Usage
The act, manner, or amount of using; use
Patterns of computer usage.
An instrument that measures water usage.
Use
Take or consume (an amount) from a limited supply
We have used all the available funds
Usage
The act or manner of treating; treatment
Subjected the car to rough usage.
Use
Describing an action or situation that was done repeatedly or existed for a period in the past
This road used to be a dirt track
I used to give him lifts home
Usage
Habitual or accepted practice
Customs that have faded from common usage.
Use
Be or become familiar with (someone or something) through experience
She was used to getting what she wanted
He's weird, but you just have to get used to him
Usage
A usual, habitual, or accepted practice
Manners and other social usages.
Use
One would like or benefit from
I could use another cup of coffee
Usage
The way in which words or phrases are actually used, spoken, or written in a speech community
"Dictionaries are but the depositories of words already legitimated by usage" (Thomas Jefferson).
Use
The action of using something or the state of being used for a purpose
Hyper-modern trains are now in use
The software is ideal for use in schools
Theatre owners were charging too much for the use of their venues
Usage
A particular expression in speech or writing
A nonce usage.
Use
The value or advantage of something
It was no use trying to persuade her
What's the use of crying?
Usage
Habit, practice.
Use
The habitual consumption of a drug
Burgling and dealing financed their heroin use
Usage
A custom or established practice.
Use
The characteristic ritual and liturgy of a Christian Church or diocese.
Usage
(uncountable) Custom, tradition.
Use
To put into service or employ for a purpose
I used a whisk to beat the eggs. The song uses only three chords.
Usage
Utilization.
Use
To avail oneself of; practice
Use caution.
Usage
The act of using something; use, employment.
Use
To conduct oneself toward; treat or handle
"the peace offering of a man who once used you unkindly" (Laurence Sterne).
Usage
The established custom of using language; the ways and contexts in which spoken and written words are used, especially by a certain group of people or in a certain region.
Use
To seek or achieve an end by means of; exploit
Used their highly placed friends to gain access to the president.
Felt he was being used by seekers of favor.
Usage
Action towards someone; treatment, especially in negative sense.
Use
To take or consume for a purpose
She used her savings to buy a computer.
Usage
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.
My brotherIs prisoner to the bishop here, at whose handsHe hath good usage and great liberty.
Use
To partake of, especially as a habit
She rarely uses alcohol.
Usage
Manners; conduct; behavior.
A gentle nymph was found,Hight Astery, excelling all the crewIn courteous usage.
Use
(ys, yst) Used in the past tense followed by to in order to indicate a former state, habitual practice, or custom
Mail service used to be faster.
Usage
Long-continued practice; customary mode of procedure; custom; habitual use; method.
It has now been, during many years, the grave and decoroususage of Parliaments to hear, in respectful silence, all expressions, acceptable or unacceptable, which are uttered from the throne.
Use
(Slang) To take an illegal or narcotic drug, especially as a habit.
Usage
Customary use or employment, as of a word or phrase in a particular sense or signification.
Use
The act of using something; the application or employment of something for a purpose
With the use of a calculator.
Skilled in the use of the bow and arrow.
Usage
Experience.
In eld [old age] is both wisdom and usage.
Use
The condition or fact of being used
A chair in regular use.
Usage
The act of using;
He warned against the use of narcotic drugs
Skilled in the utilization of computers
Use
The manner of using; usage
Learned the proper use of power tools.
Usage
Accepted or habitual practice
Use
The permission, privilege, or benefit of using something
Gave us the use of their summerhouse.
Usage
The manner in which something is used.
The usage of the word has evolved over time.
Use
The power or ability to use something
Lost the use of one arm.
Usage
Customary practice.
According to local usage, the ceremony begins at dawn.
Use
The need or occasion to use or employ something
I have no use for these old clothes.
Use
The quality of being suitable or adaptable to an end; usefulness
I tried to be of use in the kitchen.
Use
A purpose for which something is used
A tool with several uses.
A pretty bowl, but of what use is it?.
Use
Gain or advantage; good
There's no use in discussing it. What's the use?.
Use
Accustomed or usual procedure or practice
"We are but creatures of use and custom" (Mark Twain).
Use
A particular custom or practice
Uses introduced by recent immigrants.
Use
Enjoyment of property, as by occupying or employing it.
Use
The benefit or profit of lands and tenements of which the legal title is vested in another.
Use
The arrangement establishing the equitable right to such benefits and profits.
Use
A liturgical form practiced in a particular church, ecclesiastical district, or community.
Use
The act of using.
The use of torture has been condemned by the United Nations.
Use
(uncountable) The act of consuming alcohol or narcotics.
Use
Usefulness, benefit.
What's the use of a law that nobody follows?
Use
A function; a purpose for which something may be employed.
This tool has many uses.
Use
Occasion or need to employ; necessity.
I have no further use for these textbooks.
Use
Interest for lent money; premium paid for the use of something; usury.
Use
(archaic) Continued or repeated practice; usage; habit.
Use
(obsolete) Common occurrence; ordinary experience.
Use
(Christianity) The special form of ritual adopted for use in any diocese.
The Sarum, or Canterbury, use; the Hereford use; the York use; the Roman use; etc.
Use
(forging) A slab of iron welded to the side of a forging, such as a shaft, near the end, and afterward drawn down, by hammering, so as to lengthen the forging.
Use
To utilize or employ.
Use
(transitive) To employ; to apply; to utilize.
Use this knife to slice the bread.
We can use this mathematical formula to solve the problem.
Use
To expend; to consume by employing.
I used the money they allotted me.
We should use up most of the fuel.
She used all the time allotted to complete the test.
Use
(transitive) To exploit.
You never cared about me; you just used me!
Use
(transitive) To consume (alcohol, drugs, etc), especially regularly.
He uses cocaine. I have never used drugs.
Use
(intransitive) To consume a previously specified substance, especially a drug to which one is addicted.
Richard began experimenting with cocaine last year; now he uses almost every day.
Use
To benefit from; to be able to employ or stand.
I could use a drink. My car could use a new coat of paint.
Use
To accustom; to habituate. Now common only in participial form. Uses the same pronunciation as the noun; see usage notes.
Use
To become accustomed, to accustom oneself.
Use
To suggest, request, demand or expect that other people use a specific set of gender pronouns when referring to the subject.
I use they/them pronouns.
Use
To habitually do; to be wont to do. (Now chiefly in past-tense forms; see used to.)
I used to get things done.
Use
(dated) To behave toward; to act with regard to; to treat.
To use an animal cruelly
Use
To behave, act, comport oneself.
Use
The act of employing anything, or of applying it to one's service; the state of being so employed or applied; application; employment; conversion to some purpose; as, the use of a pen in writing; his machines are in general use.
Books can never teach the use of books.
This Davy serves you for good uses.
When he framedAll things to man's delightful use.
Use
Occasion or need to employ; necessity; as, to have no further use for a book.
Use
Yielding of service; advantage derived; capability of being used; usefulness; utility.
God made two great lights, great for their useTo man.
'T is use alone that sanctifies expense.
Use
Continued or repeated practice; customary employment; usage; custom; manner; habit.
Let later age that noble use envy.
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Use
Common occurrence; ordinary experience.
O Cæsar! these things are beyond all use.
Use
The special form of ritual adopted for use in any diocese; as, the Sarum, or Canterbury, use; the Hereford use; the York use; the Roman use; etc.
From henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one use.
Use
The premium paid for the possession and employment of borrowed money; interest; usury.
Thou art more obliged to pay duty and tribute, use and principal, to him.
Use
The benefit or profit of lands and tenements. Use imports a trust and confidence reposed in a man for the holding of lands. He to whose use or benefit the trust is intended shall enjoy the profits. An estate is granted and limited to A for the use of B.
Use
A stab of iron welded to the side of a forging, as a shaft, near the end, and afterward drawn down, by hammering, so as to lengthen the forging.
Use
To make use of; to convert to one's service; to avail one's self of; to employ; to put a purpose; as, to use a plow; to use a chair; to use time; to use flour for food; to use water for irrigation.
Launcelot Gobbo, use your legs.
Some other means I have which may be used.
Use
To behave toward; to act with regard to; to treat; as, to use a beast cruelly.
How wouldst thou use me now?
Cato has used me ill.
Use
To practice customarily; to make a practice of; as, to use diligence in business.
Use hospitality one to another.
Use
To accustom; to habituate; to render familiar by practice; to inure; - employed chiefly in the passive participle; as, men used to cold and hunger; soldiers used to hardships and danger.
I am so used in the fire to blow.
Thou with thy compeers,Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels.
I would, my son, that thou wouldst use the powerWhich thy discretion gives thee, to controlAnd manage all.
To study nature will thy time employ:Knowledge and innocence are perfect joy.
Use
To be wont or accustomed; to be in the habit or practice; as, he used to ride daily; - now disused in the present tense, perhaps because of the similarity in sound, between "use to," and "used to."
They use to place him that shall be their captain on a stone.
Fears use to be represented in an imaginary.
Thus we use to say, it is the room that smokes, when indeed it is the fire in the room.
Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it without the camp.
Use
To be accustomed to go; to frequent; to inhabit; to dwell; - sometimes followed by of.
He useth every day to a merchant's house.
Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers useOf shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks.
Use
The act of using;
He warned against the use of narcotic drugs
Skilled in the utilization of computers
Use
A particular service;
He put his knowledge to good use
Patrons have their uses
Use
What something is used for;
The function of an auger is to bore holes
Ballet is beautiful but what use is it?
Use
(economics) the utilization of economic goods to satisfy needs or in manufacturing;
The consumption of energy has increased steadily
Use
A pattern of behavior acquired through frequent repetition;
She had a habit twirling the ends of her hair
Long use had hardened him to it
Use
(law) the exercise of the legal right to enjoy the benefits of owning property;
We were given the use of his boat
Use
Exerting shrewd or devious influence especially for one's own advantage;
His manipulation of his friends was scandalous
Use
Put into service; make work or employ (something) for a particular purpose or for its inherent or natural purpose;
Use your head!
We only use Spanish at home
I can't make use of this tool
Apply a magnetic field here
This thinking was applied to many projects
How do you utilize this tool?
I apply this rule to get good results
Use the plastic bags to store the food
He doesn't know how to use a computer
Use
Take or consume (regularly or habitually);
She uses drugs rarely
Use
Seek or achieve an end by using to one's advantage;
She uses her influential friends to get jobs
The president's wife used her good connections
Use
Use up, consume fully;
The legislature expended its time on school questions
Use
Avail oneself to;
Apply a principle
Practice a religion
Use care when going down the stairs
Use your common sense
Practice non-violent resistance
Use
Habitually do something (use only in the past tense);
She used to call her mother every week but now she calls only occasionally
I used to get sick when I ate in that dining hall
They used to vacation in the Bahamas
Use
A purpose for which something is employed.
What's the use of this button?
Common Curiosities
How does "use" primarily differ from "usage"?
"Use" denotes the act of employing, while "usage" refers to the manner or frequency of use.
Can "use" function as both a noun and a verb?
Yes, "use" can be both a noun (the use of a tool) and a verb (to use a tool).
Can "use" refer to the purpose of an item?
Yes, "use" can denote the purpose for which something is employed.
In which context is "usage" often found?
"Usage" is frequently used in linguistic contexts or when discussing habitual practices.
How does "use" relate to frequency?
"Use" doesn't inherently indicate frequency; it's more about the act of employing.
In a linguistic context, how is "usage" applied?
It refers to the conventions or accepted manners governing word or phrase applications.
Is "usage" a noun or a verb?
"Usage" is primarily used as a noun.
How does "usage" indicate frequency?
"Usage" can highlight the regularity or habitual manner in which something is used.
What's the "use" of an object?
It refers to the manner in which that object is employed or its purpose.
Can "usage" pertain to customs?
Yes, "usage" can denote customary or habitual practices or manners.
Can "use" and "usage" be used interchangeably?
While related, they have nuances, so they aren't always interchangeable.
What does "language usage" imply?
It refers to the conventions governing the application of words or phrases in a language.
In a linguistic context, how is "use" applied?
It pertains to the application or employment of words or phrases.
Can "use" denote a need?
Yes, "use" can also indicate the occasion or need to employ something.
Is "usage" more specific than "use"?
Typically, yes. "Usage" often zeroes in on conventions, habits, or specific manners of use.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
