necessity
ne·ces·sity
noun
1.
the condition of being essential or indispensable
2.
- “food and shelter are necessities of life”
- “the essentials of the good life”
- “allow farmers to buy their requirements under favorable conditions”
- “a place where the requisites of water fuel and fodder can be obtained”
Origin
From Middle English necessite, from Old French necessite, from Latin necessitās (“unavoidableness, compulsion, exigency, necessity”), from necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”); see necessary. Doublet of Necessitas.
Phrases
- bare necessities
- daily necessities
- doctrine of necessity
- doctrine of philosophical necessity
- make a virtue of necessity
- money of necessity
- necessity is the mother of innovation
- necessity is the mother of invention
Related words
Word family
Narrower terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.