need
Americannoun
-
needs
plural
-
a requirement, necessary duty, or obligation.
There is no need for you to go there.
-
a lack of something wanted or deemed necessary.
to fulfill the needs of the assignment.
-
urgent want, as of something requisite.
He has no need of your charity.
- Synonyms:
- requirement
-
necessity arising from the circumstances of a situation or case.
There is no need to worry.
-
a situation or time of difficulty; exigency.
to help a friend in need;
to be a friend in need.
- Synonyms:
- emergency
-
a condition marked by the lack of something requisite.
the need for leadership.
-
destitution; extreme poverty.
The family's need is acute.
- Antonyms:
- wealth
verb (used with object)
-
needs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
needed,
past participle, past
-
needing
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
needs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
needed,
past participle, past
-
needing
present participle
-
to be under an obligation (used as an auxiliary, typically in an interrogative or in a negative statement, and followed by infinitive, in certain cases without to; in the 3d person singular the form is need, notneeds ).
He need not go.
-
to be in need or want.
-
to be necessary.
There needs no apology.
idioms
verb
-
(tr) to be in want of
to need money
-
(tr) to require or be required of necessity (to be or do something); be obliged
to need to do more work
-
(takes an infinitive without to) used as an auxiliary in negative and interrogative sentences to express necessity or obligation, and does not add -s when used with he, she, it, and singular nouns
need he go?
-
archaic (intr) to be essential or necessary to
there needs no reason for this
noun
-
the fact or an instance of feeling the lack of something
he has need of a new coat
-
a requirement
the need for vengeance
-
necessity or obligation resulting from some situation
no need to be frightened
-
distress or extremity
a friend in need
-
extreme poverty or destitution; penury
Usage
What are other ways to say need? To need something is to have need of it. How does need compare to synonyms want, lack, and require? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Synonym Usage
Need, necessity imply a want, a lack, or a demand, which must be filled. Need, a word of Old English origin, has connotations that make it strong in emotional appeal: the need to be appreciated. Necessity, a word of Latin origin, is more formal and impersonal or objective; though much stronger than need in expressing urgency or imperative demand, it is less effective in appealing to the emotions: Water is a necessity for living things.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
needsimple
-
needssimple
-
have neededperfect
-
has neededperfect
-
am needingprogressive
-
are needingprogressive
-
is needingprogressive
-
have been needingperfect progressive
-
has been needingperfect progressive
Past
-
neededsimple
-
had neededperfect
-
was needingprogressive
-
were needingprogressive
-
had been needingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of need
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun nede, Old English nēd ( West Saxon nīed ), cognate with German Not, Old Norse nauth, Gothic nauths
Explanation
A need is something essential: people need food, water, and shelter. When you lack them, you're in need. Besides physical needs like sleep, people have lots of psychological needs: like for love and friendship. To pass an exam, you need to study. To lose weight, you need to exercise more and eat less. Drug addicts feel a physical need for their drug — so do smokers. Often, we feel we need things that we actually just want: like a new video game or car. When someone is trying hard to get something, they might say "I need it!"
Vocabulary lists containing need
"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 1
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Lyrics from "Umbrella" by Rihanna
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"Inventing to Solve a Problem"
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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 children say the term sheet wasn’t binding, alleging irregularities in due diligence and the need to name additional parties to the settlement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
"I have some important documents I really need," he implored.
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
Foo said he doesn’t know how many years the orange-winged cicadas need to spend underground—he estimated between two and six—meaning next year’s bugs may be the offspring of adults from several years prior.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
“We’re going to need the depth of this roster,” Riley said, “and we obviously challenged that in the fourth quarter, and obviously didn’t respond the way we wanted.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
I need to forget everything just for one night.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
It needs to answer the question: How can a team expect to be complimented if it can’t play complementary football?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
"I am putting myself forward to be the Conservative candidate for mayor of London, because our capital needs more than an administrator," he wrote in the Times.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
It is the latest move in a growing trend of Western countries helping Ukraine to build the weapons it needs to fight Russia’s invasion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
Since its excellence needs no explaining, here are a few others that are as worthy of our appreciation, including a heartwarming duet that epitomizes Parton’s universal appeal.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
She knows I want the interviews and that she can leverage that to get what she needs.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Moist vegetation needs to be planted among the pines, he said, and bigger fire buffer zones are needed on each town’s outer edges, such as ball fields or livestock pastures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
While they recognized that they needed an audience to do the work they loved, managing it began to feel like a job in and of itself – and not one they signed up for.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
Enrollment offices are tasked with filling every class and generating the lion’s share of revenue needed to cover school operating expenses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
Said Billy Koch, Little Red Feather’s other managing partner: “It just didn’t work out the way we needed it to work out. He tries, though, every time. Can’t say anything but be proud of him.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
That evening, the priest and the barber came to the house: the niece and the housekeeper needed to be comforted, and they also needed to figure out how to find the missing person.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
The alert targets individual cell towers with a radiowave-like signal, allowing all mobile phones in the area to pick it up without needing to know people's mobile numbers.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
He said 18 schools had been destroyed and another 20 damaged, with an estimated 10,000 children urgently needing support to continue their education.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
With a 53-man roster needing to be finalized by Sunday, the Chargers wrap up the preseason against the Rams at SoFi Stadium on Thursday night.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
For a close-to-summer in Spain, I imagined needing to stop every two hours to reapply sunscreen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
The body, no longer needing iodine, will simply let any radioactive iodine it may encounter pass through harmlessly.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
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.
