unnecessary
Americanadjective
noun
-
unnecessaries
plural
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of unnecessary
Explanation
Anything that is extra or not needed is unnecessary. Wearing long underwear in July is an unnecessary precaution against being cold. If you don't need something, it's unnecessary. You take an unnecessary risk if you get in the car and don't bother to fasten your seatbelt. Driving your car when you could ride a bike instead is an unnecessary use of gasoline. If you keep dropping you pen in class, your teacher might say, "That's unnecessary." Walking your dog with two leashes is definitely unnecessary. That's obvious, but lots of times it's hard to tell what's necessary and what's unnecessary.
Vocabulary lists containing unnecessary
List 3
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List 9
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“And I think that’s the realization: There’s a lot of joy in getting rid of what is unnecessary and is not pertinent anymore.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
Full-body scans have also faced criticism from some healthcare professionals, who warn that the technology risks false positives, overdiagnoses, and unnecessary testing and anxiety.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026
He argued that an emergency motion was unnecessary because the state is already compelled to preserve evidence.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
He maintains that club play before age 12 and expensive showcases before late high school are mostly unnecessary cash grabs by for-profit companies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
He had always meant to do something, and Amy’s advice was quite unnecessary.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
There are some great songs on it, but they're smothered in unnecessaries that made it really cloudy.
From The Guardian ● May 23, 2013
She has the air of somebody who has reached a point in her life where she is dispensing with the unnecessaries.
From Time Magazine Archive
Now, how luxurious, how stuffed with shameful, wasteful unnecessaries those drawers and closets seemed!
From Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise by David Graham Phillips
Boroskie, thou art a Knave; it contains nothing But rubbish from the other rooms and unnecessaries: Will't please you see a strange Clock?
From Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (3 of 10): The Loyal Subject by Francis Beaumont
On Thursday, August 5th, the Regiment sorrowfully packed up all unnecessaries and piled them in the regimental dump.
From The Tale of a Trooper by Clutha N. (Clutha Nantes) Mackenzie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
