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necessity.

The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite.

9 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/nɪˈsɛsəti/
  1. The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite.

    countable · uncountable
    I bought a new table out of necessity. My old one was ruined.
    The report I wrote was of necessity rushed and full of errors.
  2. The condition of being needy; desperate need; lack.

    countable · uncountable
  3. Something necessary; a requisite; something indispensable.

    countable · uncountable
    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.

    countable · uncountable
    After eating a full meal, the human body's necessity for food will compel the person to eat again in the future.
  5. The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism.

    countable · uncountable
  6. Greater utilitarian good; used in justification of a criminal act.

    countable · uncountable
    doctrine of necessity
  7. Indispensable requirements (of life).

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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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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.