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• Necessity is the mother of invention
  Necessity is the mother of invention

  A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem. This saying appears in the dialogue Republic, by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.
• necessity is the mother of invention
  necessity is the mother of invention

  Inventiveness and ingenuity are stimulated by difficulty. For example, The first prisoner to tie together bedsheets to escape knew that necessity was the mother of invention. This proverb first appeared in English in 1519 in slightly different form, “Need taught him wit,” and exists in many other languages as well.

Necessity is the mother of invention

Cultural  

1. A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem. This saying appears in the dialogue Republic, by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.

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necessity is the mother of invention Idioms  

1. Inventiveness and ingenuity are stimulated by difficulty. For example, The first prisoner to tie together bedsheets to escape knew that necessity was the mother of invention. This proverb first appeared in English in 1519 in slightly different form, “Need taught him wit,” and exists in many other languages as well.

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Example Sentences

But necessity is the mother of invention or, in this case, reinvention.

From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026

Throughout all this, Palestinians who have survived in Gaza until now have lived out the adage that necessity is the mother of invention.

From Salon • Mar. 29, 2025

The proverb "necessity is the mother of invention" has been used to describe the source from which our cultural evolution springs.

From Science Daily • Feb. 5, 2024

If necessity is the mother of invention, then crisis is its drill sergeant.

From Washington Post • Sep. 12, 2022

How true it is that necessity is the mother of invention, how very true.

From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel