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Use-Value

Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

Use-value is the value a commodity has when considered as a thing that you use. So while the exchange-value is what the commodity is worth when you trade it, the use-value is what you can do with the thing. The use-value of a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream is that you can eat it, it tastes good, it's nourishing (sort of, anyway), and so on.

And here's Marx himself on the subject, comrades: "The usefulness of a thing makes it a use-value. [...] It is conditioned by the physical properties of the commodity. [...] Use-values are openly realized in use or in consumption. They constitute the material content of wealth" (1.1.4).