How to Use public utility in a Sentence

public utility

noun
  • Google’s critics have said for years that it should be treated like a public utility.
    — Tripp Mickle, WSJ, 8 June 2021
  • This is yet another tone-deaf slap in the face from our out-of-touch public utilities.
    — Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 12 Nov. 2024
  • The park was leveled, and the grounds now hold office buildings for a public utility.
    — azcentral, 4 Nov. 2014
  • The body is known as the public utility commission in many other states.
    — Melissa Estrada, The Arizona Republic, 8 May 2022
  • As a public utility, Google search would have to give others a better shot.
    — Dave Yost, Star Tribune, 8 July 2021
  • The house has central air and is connected to public utilities.
    — Nate Owen, courant.com, 14 Sep. 2017
  • Musk tends to make things that either are useless or have existed as public utilities for decades.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 3 Feb. 2020
  • There are no public utilities, and no reliable sources of food or drinking water.
    — Kirk Semple, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2019
  • In fact, common carriage is not a more general species of public utility.
    — Gilad Edelman, Wired, 15 July 2021
  • Should patient health data be treated like a public utility?
    — O. Rose Broderick, STAT, 6 Mar. 2026
  • He is considered one of the most knowledgeable experts on public utility law in the state.
    — Mark Gillispie, Star Tribune, 16 Nov. 2020
  • Connecticut towns should have the right to form public utilities and build out their own local power systems.
    — Josh Elliott, Hartford Courant, 23 Feb. 2026
  • It should be governed and guarded like a public utility to ensure that it can’t be exploited.
    — O. Rose Broderick, STAT, 6 Mar. 2026
  • The remainder are oil and gas companies and public utilities; skiers are no longer a focus.
    — Joshua Brusteinbloomberg, Los Angeles Times, 17 July 2019
  • Fire personnel and public utilities workers were at the scene to shut off gas and electricity to the house.
    — Molly Sullivan, sacbee, 27 June 2018
  • The tariffs would also cover imports of garbage trucks, public utility trucks and school buses.
    — Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 7 Oct. 2025
  • The sprawling Spanish-style home is hooked up to public utilities but is designed for more than two weeks of off-grid living.
    — James Tarmybloomberg, Los Angeles Times, 9 Aug. 2019
  • The penalty goes up if the threat is made against a school, public transportation agency or public utility service.
    — Skye Seipp, Austin American-Statesman, 12 Mar. 2024
  • The first issue in this debate is whether Facebook should be considered a public utility at all.
    — Os Keyes, Wired, 11 Jan. 2022
  • Others argue for treating Facebook as a public utility but disagree on what that might mean.
    — Os Keyes, Wired, 11 Jan. 2022
  • And of course the costs for those substations and distribution lines will fall, partly, on the public utilities.
    — Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic, 12 Mar. 2018
  • Once a court declares Google a public utility, the marketplace itself would provide the guard rails.
    — Dave Yost, Star Tribune, 8 July 2021
  • The registry is a free public utility tool that lets people create a record of how their name and likeness may be used by AI.
    — Corbin Bolies, Variety, 29 June 2026
  • Like Google, it should not only be broken up; its core service should be replaced with some kind of free public utility in the near future.
    — Matthew Walther, TheWeek, 14 Dec. 2020
  • And there are about 3,000 public utilities in the United States.
    — Aarian Marshall, WIRED, 22 Aug. 2024
  • With nearly 3 billion users around the world, Facebook has a reach that’s closer to a public utility than a fun social app.
    — Washington Post, 11 Oct. 2021
  • The public utility is saddled with $9 billion in debt and filed for bankruptcy in July.
    — Richard Fausset, Frances Robles and Deborah Acosta, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2017
  • This will not be available at launch, but will come shortly after once Hyundai assembles the right tech and public utility partners.
    — Emily Forlini, PC Magazine, 17 Apr. 2025
  • Siegele acknowledged the price tag but said the city can acquire the infrastructure through a bond that can be paid off by the public utility over a number of years.
    — Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Sep. 2020
  • Residents had to pay to get the public utility to install new equipment for electricity to be restored.
    — New York Times, 15 July 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'public utility.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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