necessitate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make necessary or unavoidable.
The breakdown of the car necessitated a change in our plans.
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to compel, oblige, or force.
The new wage demand will necessitate a price increase.
verb
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to cause as an unavoidable and necessary result
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(usually passive) to compel or require (someone to do something)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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unnecessitatingadjective
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necessitativeadjective
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prenecessitateverb (used with object)
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necessitationnoun
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unnecessitatedadjective
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have necessitatedperfect
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has necessitatedperfect 3rd person singular
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has been necessitatingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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am necessitatingprogressive 1st person singular
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is necessitatingprogressive 3rd person singular
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have been necessitatingperfect progressive
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are necessitatingprogressive
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necessitatessingular 3rd person
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necessitatingparticiple
Past
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had necessitatedperfect
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were necessitatingprogressive plural
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was necessitatingprogressive singular
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had been necessitatingperfect progressive
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necessitatedparticiple
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necessitatedsimple
Future
Etymology
Origin of necessitate
1620–30; < Medieval Latin necessitātus, past participle of necessitāre to compel, constrain. See necessity, -ate 1
Explanation
The verb necessitate shows that something is necessary or needs to happen, as when a sweet tooth can necessitate a trip to the store for a triple-scoop ice cream — which will necessitate a trip to the gym. Synonyms for necessitate are "require" and "force." Although what's required may be serious, necessitate also just labels things that follow naturally from one step to another. A dead car battery might necessitate a long walk home, or your completion of skills tests might necessitate moving up to the next level. Necessitate commonly replaces "need" when doctors talk about treatment, so while your scraped knee might need a big bandage, it may "necessitate treatment with antibiotics" if you go to a clinic.
Vocabulary lists containing necessitate
Metamorphosis
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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.
The necessity of grace, and of prayer to obtain grace, is admirably and exhaustively treated by Suarez, De Necessitate Gratiae, I, 23, sqq.
From Grace, Actual and Habitual A Dogmatic Treatise by Preuss, Arthur
De Necessitate Gratiae, II, 4.295.On the whole subject of this Article cfr.
From Grace, Actual and Habitual A Dogmatic Treatise by Preuss, Arthur
In October, he assumed his professional duty as successor to Roberg; on which occasion he delivered a discourse on the advantages of examining the interior of the country,—De Peregrinationum intra Patriam Necessitate.
From Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus with Introductory remarks on the Study of Natural History by MacGillivray, William
Necessitate cogente, licitam esse laparotomiam ad extra-hendos e sinu matris ectopicos conceptos, dummodo et foetus et matris vitae, quantum fieri potest, serio et opportune provideatur.
From Essays In Pastoral Medicine by ?Malley, Austin
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.
