need.
A requirement for something; something needed.
Meaning & usage
A requirement for something; something needed.
There's no need to speculate; we can easily find out for sure.
She grew irritated with his constant need for attention.
A desire or craving for the satisfaction of a requirement perceived as essential or primal.
Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.
Where this word comes from
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, push, nod, wave”).
To have an absolute requirement for.
Living things need water to survive.
You do not always need to go to the library to study. You may use the Internet.
To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.
After ten days of hiking, I needed a shower and a shave.
To be obliged or required (to do something).
I need not go if I don't want to, need I?
I was wondering if I need fill in more forms. - No, that's the only one you need fill out.
To be required; to be necessary.
To be necessary (to someone).
Where this word comes from
From Middle English neden, from Old English nēodian.
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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.