necessity
English
Etymology
From Middle English necessite, from Old French necessite, from Latin necessitās (“unavoidableness, compulsion, exigency, necessity”), from necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”); see necessary.
Pronunciation
Noun
necessity (countable and uncountable, plural necessities)
- The condition of being needy; desperate need; lack (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- Something necessary; a requisite; something indispensable.
- 20th century, Tenzin Gyatso (attributed)
- Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
- A tent is a necessity if you plan on camping.
- 20th century, Tenzin Gyatso (attributed)
- Something which makes an act or an event unavoidable; an irresistible force; overruling power (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- 1804, Wordsworth, The Small Celandine
- I stopped, and said with inly muttered voice,
- 'It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold:
- This neither is its courage nor its choice,
- But its necessity in being old.
- 1804, Wordsworth, The Small Celandine
- The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- (law) Greater utilitarian good; used in justification of a criminal act.
- (law, in the plural) Indispensable requirements (of life).
Synonyms
- (state of being necessary): inevitability, certainty
Antonyms
- (state of being necessary): impossibility, contingency
- (something indispensable): luxury
Derived terms
Terms derived from "necessity"
Related terms
Terms etymologically related to "necessity"
Translations
condition of being needy or necessitous
that which is necessary
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negation of freedom in voluntary action
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Further reading
- “necessity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “necessity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Anagrams
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