n. 1
A requirement for something; something needed.
Our instant needs are not being met.
n. 2
A desire or craving for the satisfaction of a requirement perceived as essential or primal.
n. 3
Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.
v. 1
To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.
After ten days of hiking, I needed a shower and a shave.

Related words

Word family: needful needfully needfulness neediness needless needlessly needlessness needly
Phrases: need not need to

Forms

Plural: needs → necessities, urgencies, indigences, pauperisms…
Past participle: needed
e.g. needed → wanted, required, taken, lacked…

Choose the right word

Need or Want?

Need suggests the possibility of supplying the deficiency which want expresses; to speak of a person's want of decision merely points out a weakness in his character; to say that he has need of decision implies that he can exercise or attain it.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

necessity He said that necessity is the mother of invention.
urgency His attitude conveyed a clear lack of urgency.
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.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
need		rising
necessity		falling
urgency		steady
requirement		steady
requisite		falling

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: use¹, ask¹
4 letters: will¹, want¹, take¹, lack¹
5 letters: claim¹, exact², crave¹
6 letters: demand², desire³, motive², dearth¹, penury³
7 letters: require³, poverty³, involve², urgency³
8 letters: occasion³, distress², exigency⁴
9 letters: emergency⁴, necessity⁴, requisite³, extremity⁴, postulate³, privation³, indigence, pauperism
10 letters: commitment³, motivation⁴
11 letters: requirement³, necessitate⁴, destitution⁴, wantfulness
13 letters: pauperization, pauperisation

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (exact² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: besoin
Italiano: bisogno
Español: necesidad
Deutsch: Bedarf
Català: necessitat