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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

necessary.

Required, essential, whether logically inescapable or needed in order to achieve a desired result or avoid some penalty.

9 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈnɛs.ə.sɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈnɛs.əˌsɛ.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈnɛs.əˌsɛ.ɹi/General-American/ˈnɛs.ə.ɹi/nonstandard
  1. Required, essential, whether logically inescapable or needed in order to achieve a desired result or avoid some penalty.

    Although I wished to think that all was false, it was yet necessary that I, who thus thought, must in some sense exist.
    It is absolutely necessary that you call and confirm your appointment.
  2. Unavoidable, inevitable.

    If it is absolutely necessary to use public computers, you should plan ahead and forward your e-mail to a temporary, disposable account.
  3. Determined, involuntary: acting from compulsion rather than free will.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English necessarye, from Old French necessaire, from Latin necessārius (“unavoidable, inevitable, required”), variant of necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”), probably from ne or non cessum, from the perfect passive participle of cēdō (“yield; avoid, withdraw”); see cede. Older use as a noun in reference to an outhouse or lavatory under the influence of English and Latin necessārium, a medieval term for the place for monks’ “unavoidable” business, usually located behind or attached to monastic dormitories.

noun/ˈnɛs.ə.sɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈnɛs.əˌsɛ.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈnɛs.əˌsɛ.ɹi/General-American/ˈnɛs.ə.ɹi/nonstandard
  1. A place to do the "necessary" business of urination and defecation: an outhouse or lavatory.

    archaic · euphemistic
  2. Necessity.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English necessarye, from Old French necessaire, from Latin necessārius (“unavoidable, inevitable, required”), variant of necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”), probably from ne or non cessum, from the perfect passive participle of cēdō (“yield; avoid, withdraw”); see cede. Older use as a noun in reference to an outhouse or lavatory under the influence of English and Latin necessārium, a medieval term for the place for monks’ “unavoidable” business, usually located behind or attached to monastic dormitories.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.