unnecessary

WOTD - 3 August 2008    

English

Etymology

un- +‎ necessary

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ʌnˈnɛs.əˌsəɹ.ɪ /, /ʌnˈnɛs.əˌsɛɹ.ɪ/, X-SAMPA: /Vn.nEs@s@r\I/, /Vn.nEs@sEr\I/
• (US) IPA: /ʌnˈnɛs.əˌsɛɹ.i/, X-SAMPA: /Vn.nEs@sEr\I/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æri
• (UK, US, nonstandard) IPA: /ʌnˈnɛs.ə.ɹɪ/

Adjective

unnecessary (comparative more unnecessary, superlative most unnecessary)

1. Not needed or necessary.

   The automatic child-frightener made clowns unnecessary.

   • 2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, Guardian:

     Robins, of Torquay, had denied a single charge of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. She claimed the microwave was accidentally turned on by one of the cats after the kitten got inside. But Knutton said the kitten was too small to even get onto the work surface.

2. Done in addition to requirements; unrequired.

Antonyms

• (not needed): necessary, needed
• (in addition to requirements): required, mandatory

Synonyms

• (not needed): superfluous, unneeded, needless, innecessary
• (in addition to requirements): additional, innecessary

Derived terms

Terms derived from unnecessary

unnecessarily

unnecessariness

Translations

not necessary

Arabic: غير ضروري (ar) (ğer ɖarú:ri) Armenian: անպետք (hy) (anpetk’), ավելորդ (hy) (avelord) Catalan: innecessari (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 多餘的 (zh), 多余的 (zh) (duōyú de), 不必要 (bù bìyào) Danish: unødvendig (da) Dutch: onnodig (nl) Esperanto: nenecesa (eo) Estonian: liigne (et) Finnish: tarpeeton (fi), turha (fi) French: inutile (fr) German: nicht notwendig (de), unnötig (de) Greek: περιττός (el) (perittós) m., περιττή (el) (perittí) f., περιττό (el) (perittó) n.

Hungarian: szükségtelen (hu) Italian: inutile (it) Japanese: 不必要な (ja) (fuhitsuyō na) Korean: 불필요한 (ko) (bulpiryohan) Latin: superforāneus (la) Norwegian: unødvendig (no) Polish: zbędny (pl), niepotrzebny (pl) Portuguese: desnecessário (pt) Russian: ненужный (ru) (nenúžnyj) Spanish: innecesario (es) Swedish: onödig (sv) Turkish: gereksiz (tr), lüzumsuz (tr), boş yere (tr)