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necessity
[ nuh-ses-i-tee ]
noun
- something necessary or indispensable:
food, shelter, and other necessities of life.
- the fact of being necessary or indispensable; indispensability:
the necessity of adequate housing.
- an imperative requirement or need for something:
the necessity for a quick decision.
Synonyms:
- the state or fact of being necessary or inevitable:
to face the necessity of testifying in court.
- an unavoidable need or compulsion to do something:
not by choice but by necessity.
- a state of being in financial need; poverty:
a family in dire necessity.
Synonyms: , ,
- Philosophy. the quality of following inevitably from logical, physical, or moral laws.
necessity
/ ɪˈɛɪɪ /
noun
- sometimes plural something needed for a desired result; prerequisite
necessities of life
- a condition or set of circumstances, such as physical laws or social rules, that inevitably requires a certain result
it is a matter of necessity to wear formal clothes when meeting the Queen
- the state or quality of being obligatory or unavoidable
- urgent requirement, as in an emergency or misfortune
in time of necessity we must all work together
- poverty or want
- rare.compulsion through laws of nature; fate
- philosophy
- a condition, principle, or conclusion that cannot be otherwise
- the constraining force of physical determinants on all aspects of life Compare freedom
- logic
- the property of being necessary
- a statement asserting that some property is essential or statement is necessarily true
- the operator that indicates that the expression it modifies is true in all possible worlds Usual symbol
- of necessityinevitably; necessarily
Other Word Forms
- ԴDzn·s·ٲ noun plural nonnecessities
- p·Ա·s·ٲ noun plural supernecessities
Word History and Origins
Origin of necessity1
Idioms and Phrases
- of necessity, as an inevitable result; unavoidably; necessarily:
Our trip to China must of necessity be postponed for a while.
More idioms and phrases containing necessity
In addition to the idiom beginning with necessity , also see make a virtue of necessity ; of necessity .Synonym Study
Example Sentences
The UN meanwhile warned that the 52-day Israeli blockade had deprived Gaza's 2.1 million population of "the basic necessities for human survival".
They added the purchases would not have been made had more detailed information been available and had the "necessity of the circumstances" been different.
I started out of necessity and out of curiosity.
The chief executive of the Scottish Huntington's Association, Alistair Haw, said specialist services were not an "optional extra" but rather an "absolute necessity".
"Every family is equal now - there is no rich or poor. People can't afford the basic necessities like food."
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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