need

Pronunciation: /niːd/

The English word “need” has 8 meanings listed here.

noun

A requirement for something; something needed.
A desire or craving for the satisfaction of a requirement perceived as essential or primal.
Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.

verb

To have an absolute requirement for.
To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.
To be obliged or required (to do something).
To be required; to be necessary.
To be necessary (to someone).

Etymology

From Middle English need, nede, a merger of two terms: * Old English nīed (West Saxon), nēd (Mercian), nēad (“necessity, compulsion, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *naudi, from Proto-Germanic *naudiz, from Proto-Indo-European *neh₂w- (“death”). * Old English nēod (“desire, longing”), from Proto-West Germanic *niudi (“desire, eagerness”), from Proto-Indo-European *new- (“to incline, tend, move,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.