necessity
Pronunciation: /nɪˈsɛsəti/
The English word “necessity” has 7 meanings listed here.
noun
- The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite.
- The condition of being needy; desperate need; lack.
- Something necessary; a requisite; something indispensable.
- Something which makes an act or an event unavoidable; an irresistible force; overruling power.
- The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism.
- Greater utilitarian good; used in justification of a criminal act.
- Indispensable requirements (of life).
Etymology
From Middle English necessite, from Old French necessite, from Latin necessitās (“unavoidableness, compulsion, exigency, necessity”), from necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”); see necessary. Doublet of Necessitas.
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More English words
- necessitously
- necessitousness
- necessitude
- necessitudinous
- necessity is the mother of invention
- necessity knows no law
- necessity money
- necitumumab
About this dictionary
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.