necessarily

[nes-uh-sair-uh-lee, -ser-]

adverb

1. by or of necessity; as a matter of compulsion or requirement.

   You don't necessarily have to attend.

2. as a necessary, logical, or inevitable result.

   That conclusion doesn't necessarily follow.

necessarily

/ ˌnɛsɪˈsɛrɪlɪ, ˈnɛsɪsərɪlɪ /

adverb

1. as an inevitable or natural consequence

   girls do not necessarily like dolls

2. as a certainty

   he won't necessarily come

Word History and Origins

Origin of necessarily¹

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; necessary, -ly

Example Sentences

It’s not necessarily a zero-sum game between the two companies.

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So Friday’s game wasn’t necessarily one he had circled on his calendar.

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Even under Justinian law, though, a slave was property, and if freedom was a natural state, it wasn’t necessarily a permanent one.

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But when a stock has an overbought condition, the technical outlook isn’t necessarily as bad as it sounds.

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“They don’t necessarily like him, because he can be difficult to work with and very, very demanding, very pushy.”

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Related Words

• automatically 
• naturally 
• no doubt 
• undoubtedly 
• unquestionably