Synonyms for necessity
Most common
requisite requirement need essential inevitability certainty compulsion
Synonyms by meaning
Noun
1. Requisite
requisite, requirement, need, essential, exigency, urgency, must, condition, want, indigence, privation, poverty, sine qua non, prerequisite, destitution, penury, distress, necessary dated
2. Inevitability — the quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite
inevitability, certainty, fate, needfulness, inevitableness, necessariness
3. Compulsion
Other
occasion, predestination, indispensability, indispensableness, unavoidableness, needment dated
Definitions
- n. 1
The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite.
I bought a new table out of necessity. My old one was ruined.
- n. 2
The condition of being needy; desperate need; lack.
- n. 3
Something necessary; a requisite; something indispensable.
A tent is a necessity if you plan on camping.
Related words
Forms
- Plural
- necessities → requisites, requirements, needs, essentials…
Choose the right word
Necessity is the quality of being necessary, or the quality of that which can not but be, become, or be true, or be accepted as true. As applied to a deficiency, necessity is more imperative than need; a weary person is in need of rest; when rest becomes a necessity he has no choice but to stop work.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- essential Selfishness is an essential part of his character.
- requirement So friendship is also a requirement for happiness.
- requisite I won't be able to go travelling until the requisite visa fees are paid.
- certainty Doubt isn't pleasant, but certainty is ridiculous.
- inevitability Humans worship choices. Alpha doesn't choose. It executes inevitability.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| necessity | falling | |
| essential | steady | |
| requirement | steady | |
| requisite | falling | |
| exigency | steady | |
| certainty | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- need1, want1, must1, fate1
- 6 letters
- penury3
- 7 letters
- poverty3, urgency3
- 8 letters
- occasion3, distress2, exigency4, needment
- 9 letters
- condition3, necessary4, essential3, certainty3, requisite3, privation3, indigence
- 10 letters
- obligation4, constraint2, compulsion3
- 11 letters
- requirement3, destitution4, needfulness
- 12 letters
- prerequisite4
- 13 letters
- inevitability7, necessariness
- 14 letters
- predestination5, inevitableness
- 15 letters
- unavoidableness
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (penury3 = 3 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- nécessité
- Italiano
- necessità
- Deutsch
- Notwendigkeit