necessity

Noun

Meaning

The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite; inevitableness; indispensableness.

The condition of being needy or necessitous; pressing need; indigence; want.

That which is necessary; a necessary; a requisite; something indispensable; -- often in the plural.

That which makes an act or an event unavoidable; irresistible force; overruling power; compulsion, physical or moral; fate; fatality.

The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism.

Source: Webster's dictionary

Synonyms

requirement necessary essential certainty requisite inevitability needfulness must required need lack needed call needs importance

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Antonyms

luxury contingency ritz WEFT luxe advantage

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Hypernyms

need demand thing

Hyponyms

must need want urgency desideratum requisiteness

Related terms

necessary necessitate necessitude necessariness necessitousness necessitation

Phrases with the word

make a virtue of necessity basic necessity overriding necessity regardless of the necessity to necessity of the moment in spite of the necessity to

Derivatives

necessities

Examples

Necessity makes even the timid brave. Sallust

Nothing has more strength than dire necessity. Euripides

If bread is the first necessity of life, recreation is a close second. Edward Bellamy

Necessity changes a lion into a fox. Persian Proverb

Necessity is the mother of invention. English Proverb

Necessity turns lion into fox. Persian Proverb

Close letter words and terms

necessitousness necessitude necessitudinous necessity money necessity of the moment Nechaev