require
Americanverb (used with object)
-
requires,
present (3rd person singular)
-
required,
past participle, past
-
requiring
present participle
-
to have need of; need.
He requires medical care.
-
to call on authoritatively; order or enjoin to do something.
to require an agent to account for money spent.
-
to ask for authoritatively or imperatively; demand.
- Antonyms:
- forgo
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to impose need or occasion for; make necessary or indispensable.
The work required infinite patience.
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to call for or exact as obligatory; ordain.
The law requires annual income-tax returns.
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to place under an obligation or necessity.
The situation requires me to take immediate action.
- Synonyms:
- necessitate, obligate
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Chiefly British. to desire; wish to have.
Will you require tea at four o'clock?
verb (used without object)
-
requires,
present (3rd person singular)
-
required,
past participle, past
-
requiring
present participle
verb
-
to have need of; depend upon; want
-
to impose as a necessity; make necessary
this work requires precision
-
(also intr) to make formal request (for); insist upon or demand, esp as an obligation
-
to call upon or oblige (a person) authoritatively; order or command
to require someone to account for his actions
Usage
What are other ways to say require? To require something is to have a need for it or to ask for it authoritatively. How does require compare to synonyms want, need, and lack? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Synonym Usage
See demand.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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requirernoun
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prerequireverb (used with object)
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nonrequirableadjective
-
quasi-requiredadjective
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requirableadjective
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unrequiredadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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requiresimple
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requiressimple
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have requiredperfect
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has requiredperfect
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am requiringprogressive
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are requiringprogressive
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is requiringprogressive
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have been requiringperfect progressive
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has been requiringperfect progressive
Past
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requiredsimple
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had requiredperfect
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was requiringprogressive
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were requiringprogressive
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had been requiringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of require
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English requiren, from Latin requīrere, equivalent to re- re- ( def. ) + -quīrere, combining form of quaerere “to seek, search for”; cf. quest ( def. )
Explanation
Require means to need. You require food, water, and shelter to live, but do you really require that new pair of high-fashion shoes? The verb require comes from Latin root words re-, meaning "repeatedly," and quaerere, meaning "to ask." The word lost the sense of asking and came to mean needing, demanding, or insisting upon something. The law requires that you attend school until you're sixteen; your parents probably require you to finish high school. If you're a waiter in a fancy restaurant and the food has been served, you might ask if your customers require anything else.
Vocabulary lists containing require
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Academic Vocabulary Toolkit 1, Words 81-90
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Quartering Act (1765)
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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:
Ending indefinite sentences will require new legislation, meaning it could be years before space is freed up.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
Under it, the companies undertake not to leave consumers paying for the power plants and grid upgrades their facilities require.
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
Separate bills that would require the centers to disclose their energy and water use were recently approved by state lawmakers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
The United States cannot require Canada to adopt the new name for the lake, which forms part of the international border.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
“I am Llewelyn the Fifteenth, Prince of the Red Woods. We require your help, Your Highness. From one royal to another, of course. Oh, these are my charges, Glory, Danny, and my squire, Orion.”
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
New York has imposed a year-long moratorium on new hyperscale facilities, and Pennsylvania now requires developers to cover infrastructure costs and meet tougher standards on water use, hiring and community consultation.
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
The legislation requires the California Public Utilities Commission to create special rates and updated rules for data centers’ use of electricity, including the costs for new power for infrastructure upgrades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
It comes from trust, which requires telling people the truth.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
Measuring those features requires instruments capable of revealing what lies beneath the rubble, similar to how a CT scanner can reveal bones and tissues inside the human body.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026
The program’s success requires police to stop “staggering” numbers of people in shotgun fashion.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
But prices for the certificates required to put a car on the road have hit new highs, forcing drivers to make tough choices about whether to still own a vehicle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
You typically have a much wider selection of investment options and are not required to meet any qualifications to get funds out of an IRA.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026
Given their healthy lead, there was no panic for England, but caution was required.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
"To be able to meet the 2030 climate target, annual savings of around 40 million tonnes of CO2 are required," the think tank said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
Equally important, this concept required a spaceship so large—three hundred thousand pounds—that the nation’s existing factories, railroads, highways, and ships wouldn’t be able to transport the parts required to put it together.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
Opposition centers on water use, air and noise pollution, and the potential for data centers to raise utility bills as they add strain to the grid requiring costly upgrades and new electricity supply.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
There will be a new parade application requiring a fresh decision, one which will need to be watertight procedurally and able to withstand any further judicial tests.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
We are protecting children’s privacy by requiring a company to know more about them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
That raised the possibility that some of the biological benefits of calorie restriction might be reproduced without requiring people to lose weight.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
Inhabitants of those islands developed intensive dryland agriculture requiring a heavy input of labor to build terraces, carry out mulching, rotate crops, reduce or eliminate fallow periods, and maintain tree plantations.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
