necessity

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for necessity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Etymology

From Middle English necessite, from Old French necessite, from Latin necessitās (“unavoidableness, compulsion, exigency, necessity”), from necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”); see necessary.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /nɪˈsɛsəti/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

necessity (countable and uncountable, plural necessities)

  1. The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite.
    • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
      Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, […]. A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul.
    I bought a new table out of necessity. My old one was ruined.
  2. The condition of being needy; desperate need; lack
  3. Something necessary; a requisite; something indispensable.
    • Tenzin Gyatso
      Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
    A tent is a necessity if you plan on camping.
  4. Something which makes an act or an event unavoidable; an irresistible force; overruling power
    • 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.
  5. The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism.
  6. (law) Greater utilitarian good; used in justification of a criminal act.
  7. (law, in the plural) Indispensable requirements (of life).

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Further reading

  • necessity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • necessity in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

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