Availment

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of using something to gain an advantage or benefit
2. Making use of a resource or opportunity to improve one's situation
3. The process of taking advantage of an available aid or service to help oneself

Etymology: "Availment" is a plain formation: the verb "avail" with the suffix "-ment" attached to form a noun. "Avail" itself came into English from Old French "availer", meaning to be of use, and its roots run back through Latin "valere", to be strong or worth something, which is also the source of "value" and "valid". The suffix does the same job as in "payment" or "judgment", turning an action into a noun for the act or process. The suffix has a longer pedigree than the word it is attached to. It descends from Latin "-mentum", which formed nouns denoting a result or means, and it arrived in English through Old French "-ment" and Middle English "-ment". Its ancestry reaches back to a Proto-Indo-European form, but in English it is simply a productive ending that English speakers have applied to verbs for centuries.

Synonyms: utilization, use, employment, application, exploitation

Antonyms: ineffectiveness, uselessness, disuse, abandonment, neglect