necessary
necessary is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 5 senses, and appears in Roget's Thesaurus (1911) with 40 related terms. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.
Definitions
- 1.Impossible to be otherwise, or to be dispensed with, without preventing the attainment of a desired result; indispensable; requiste; essential. "'T is necessary he should die." Shak. A certain kind of temper is necessary to the pleasure and quiet of our minds. Tillotson.
- 2.Acting from necessity or compulsion; involuntary; -- opposed to free; as, whether man is a necessary or a free agent is a question much discussed.
- 3.A thing that is necessary or indispensable to some purpose; something that one can not do without; a requisite; an essential; -- used chiefly in the plural; as, the necessaries of life.
- 4.A privy; a water-closet.
- 5.pl. (Law) Such things, in respect to infants, lunatics, and married women, as are requisite for support suitable to station.
Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
Synonyms
Related terms (Roget's 1911)
- able
- absorbing
- ask
- call
- cannot
- case
- charge
- claim
- command
- create
- crying
- death
- deficiency
- demand
- desiderate
- desideratum
- desire
- destitute
- dispense
- essential
- essentiality
- exaction
- exigency
- exigent
- for
- have
- imperative
- indispensability
- indispensable
- injunction
- instant
- lack
- life
- lose
- make
- mandate
- matter
- necessarily
- necessitate
- necessity
Source: Roget's Thesaurus, 1911 edition (public domain, via Project Gutenberg eBook #10681).
Related questions
Reverse-dictionary questions
Definition-first questions whose answer is necessary.
- What is acting from necessity or compulsion; involuntary; -- opposed to free; as, whether man is a necessary or a free agent is a question much discussed called?
- What is a thing that is necessary or indispensable to some purpose; something that one can not do without; a requisite; an essential; -- used chiefly in the plural; as, the necessaries of life called?
- What is pl. (Law) Such things, in respect to infants, lunatics, and married women, as are requisite for support suitable to station called?
Sources
- Definitions: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
- Synonyms: Roget's Thesaurus, 1911 edition (public domain, via Project Gutenberg eBook #10681).
- Canonical URL: https://worddirectanswers.com/word/necessary
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