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desideratum

[dih-sid-uh-rey-tuh m, -rah-, -zid-]
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noun, plural de·sid·er·a·ta [dih-sid-uh-rey-tuh, -rah-, -zid-] /dɪˌsɪd əˈreɪ tə, -ˈrɑ-, -ˌzɪd-/.

something wanted or needed.

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Lexical Investigations: Desiderata
Desiderata is a plural noun, with the singular form desideratum, meaning “things wanted or needed.” For many, the word desiderata most often evokes a famous poem by Max Ehrmann, written in 1927 and often referred to simply as Desiderata, without attribution or quotation marks. The poem begins with the oft-quoted lines, “Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, / and remember what peace there …
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RELATED WORDS

requirement, precondition, prerequisite, fundamental, obligation, essential, urgency, use, right, wish, commitment, demand, specification, stipulation, qualification, need, provision, condition, concern, desire

Origin of desideratum

1645–55; < Latin, noun use of neuter past participle of dēsīderāre; see desiderate

desiderata

[dih-sid-uh-rey-tuh, -rah-, -zid-]

plural noun, singular de·sid·er·a·tum.

things wanted or needed; the plural of desideratum: “Happily-ever-after” and “eternal love” appear to be the desiderata of the current generation; to whom “fat chance” say those of us who are older, wiser, and more curmudgeonly.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for desideratum

Contemporary Examples of desideratum

  • To produce and to sell securities in the greatest possible quantity—that was the desideratum.'

    The Daily Beast logo
    Goldman's Crisis Control

    Michael Thomas

    July 21, 2009

Historical Examples of desideratum

  • I will now describe one or two methods employed to effect this desideratum.

    Magic

    Ellis Stanyon

  • The desideratum is a really rough day, but that at Valencia is past praying for.

    Unexplored Spain

    Abel Chapman

  • The choice of soaps has considerable influence in promoting and maintaining this desideratum.

  • There is no sentiment in botany or in chemistry, and in them the desideratum is truth.

    Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert

  • An up-to-date history of Chinese education is still a desideratum.

British Dictionary definitions for desideratum

desideratum

noun plural -ta (-tə)

something lacked and wanted

Word Origin for desideratum

C17: from Latin; see desiderate

desiderata

noun

the plural of desideratum
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for desideratum
n.

"something lacking," see desiderata.

desiderata

n.

plural of desideratum (1650s), from Latin, literally "something for which desire is felt," from past participle stem of desiderare "to long for" (see desire).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper