use value

Noun

use value (plural use values)

1. (Marxism, especially) The ability of an object (not necessarily a commodity) to satisfy a human need; a utility.

   Synonyms:

   value in use

   1. (Marxism, especially) An object with such ability.
      • The utility of a thing makes it a use-value. But this utility is not a thing of air. Being limited by the physical properties of the commodity, it has no existence apart from that commodity. A commodity, such as iron, corn, or a diamond, is therefore, so far as it is a material thing, a use-value...1887, Karl Marx, “Commodities”, in Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, transl., edited by Frederick [i.e., Friedrich] Engels, Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production: Translated from the...
      • A commodity is, in the first place, a thing that satisfies a human want; in the second place, it is a thing that can be exchanged for another thing. The utility of a thing makes it a use-value. Exchange-value (or simply, value) presents itself first of all as the ratio, the proportion, in which a...1970 [1915], Vladimir Lenin, “Marx's Economic Doctrine”, in Karl Marx: A Brief Biographical Sketch with an Exposition of Marxism, Foreign Languages Press, page 19