Utilize

You (almost) never utilize. Originally, the distinction was thus:

Use meant to use something according to its designated function. When you hammered in a nail with a hammer, you merely used the hammer. Utilize meant to use something unconventionally. If you employed the hammer to prop open a window for example, you, in that case, utilized the hammer.

Nowadays, because the dictionary can't resist the unstoppable force of human stupidity, utilize is merely defined as "make practical and effective use of."

Ideal writing is minimalistic with syllables and lavish with content. However, the following childish approach prevails:

I was tutoring a boy in SATs — math, reading, and writing.

I asked him, "What is good writing?"

Among other things, he replied with, "When you use words that most people don't know."

That response was like a small dagger to my wordsmith's heart.

My guess is that that impression came either from other bad writers who were merely trying to sound intelligent or from good writers whom he simply didn't understand.

Regardless of the source, his response was not a description for good writing. That is the perspective of a duped child.

When you say/write "utilize," in most cases, you are talking/writing like a duped child.

Please stop it.