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:
The Greek government said it had "never" been threatened or pressured, and the foreign ministry said it was "unnecessary" to summon Guilfoyle on the issue.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
I was initially wary, but my fears were unnecessary.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
Practical strategies include reducing unnecessary notifications, particularly from social media and messaging applications, and setting limits on time spent browsing social platforms.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
So I took them there and was totally unnecessary, except when it came time to pay the bill.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
It seemed unnecessary, however, to court trouble by investigating the matter.
From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
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
We also had enough unnecessaries to bring us to grief in a couple of weeks.
From Tracks of a Rolling Stone by Henry J. (Henry John) Coke
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
I say, pater, do come up while I toss a few unnecessaries into my case.—That's right, Brown; put my bag in my room.
From The Parts Men Play by Arthur Beverley Baxter
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
