require

American  

[ri-kwahyuhr] / rɪˈkwaɪər /

verb (used with object)

• requires,
  present (3rd person singular)
• required,
  past participle,  past
• requiring
  present participle

1. to have need of; need.

   He requires medical care.

2. to call on authoritatively; order or enjoin to do something.

   to require an agent to account for money spent.

3. to ask for authoritatively or imperatively; demand.

   Antonyms:

   forgo

4. to impose need or occasion for; make necessary or indispensable.

   The work required infinite patience.

5. to call for or exact as obligatory; ordain.

   The law requires annual income-tax returns.

6. to place under an obligation or necessity.

   The situation requires me to take immediate action.

   Synonyms:

   necessitate, obligate

7. Chiefly British. to desire; wish to have.

   Will you require tea at four o'clock?

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verb (used without object)

• requires,
  present (3rd person singular)
• required,
  past participle,  past
• requiring
  present participle

1. to demand; impose obligation.

   to do as the law requires.

require British  

/ rɪˈkwaɪə /

verb

1. to have need of; depend upon; want

2. to impose as a necessity; make necessary

   this work requires precision

3. (also intr) to make formal request (for); insist upon or demand, esp as an obligation

4. to call upon or oblige (a person) authoritatively; order or command

   to require someone to account for his actions

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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

• requirer
  noun
• prerequire
  verb (used with object)
• nonrequirable
  adjective
• quasi-required
  adjective
• requirable
  adjective
• unrequired
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• requiring
  present
• required
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• require
  simple
• requires
  simple
• have required
  perfect
• has required
  perfect
• am requiring
  progressive
• are requiring
  progressive
• is requiring
  progressive
• have been requiring
  perfect progressive
• has been requiring
  perfect progressive

Past

• required
  simple
• had required
  perfect
• was requiring
  progressive
• were requiring
  progressive
• had been requiring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will require
  simple
• will have required
  perfect
• will be requiring
  progressive
• will have been requiring
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

require requires required requiring

The first is “what the market believes the average short-term interest rate will be over the next decade,” while the second is the “additional compensation investors require for bearing the uncertainty around that path.”

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026

More than half of U.S. states now require students to complete a stand-alone personal-finance course to graduate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

During his initial days, zoo officials said that Crimson’s health was “at a delicate stage,” and would require close monitoring.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026

Deputy leader Richard Tice will set out plans to build 50,000 affordable social homes a year in a news conference on Monday, a policy which the party claims will require no new taxes or borrowing.

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026

But getting back to it would require passing by that sinister doorway.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

The results call into question the common assumption that restoring species-rich grassland necessarily requires commercial seed mixes or other expensive measures.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026

Scottish Mountaineering Club requires climbers to reach 1,072 summits across six different hill classifications to complete the "full house".

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026

The judge wrote that GEO Group’s contract with ICE “plausibly” requires the company to follow only state laws that existed when the contract was signed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

Still, it’s an expensive setup that essentially requires participants to pay twice for primary care, both via health insurance premiums and through the DPC membership fee.

From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026

“It requires indeed some courage to undertake a labor of such far-reaching extent,” Mendel would write later.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

In July, Michaels was diagnosed with a complicated obstructing kidney stone, which required immediate surgery and the placement of a ureteral stent.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

Meanwhile, the mold experts hired by plaintiffs and defendants often come to vastly different conclusions about what is required to remediate the problem.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

A major obstacle, however, has been producing these signals with the precision and stability required for advanced applications.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026

Platforms regularly used by children would also be required to regularly assess the risks they pose and report on how they are being identified and reduced.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

Usually, anyone working near radiation would be required to carry this potentially lifesaving device.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

But investor appetite in lending the US government money through buying bonds is "diminishing", Swanson warns, creating a "vicious" cycle, requiring the government to offer ever higher returns to keep investors purchasing its debt.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

In February 2025, Newsom signed an executive order requiring the board to finish the regulations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

Leveraging an Nvidia relationship would cut Apple’s reliance on a direct competitor — Google — without requiring the company to give up much in terms of capabilities, Schulze-Melander said.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026

In addition, Cassidy argued that the changes could turn two MMR shots into six individual injections — while requiring additional trips to the doctor’s office.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

Once people began to produce food and become sedentary, they could shorten the birth spacing and produce still more people, requiring still more food.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• call for
• cause
• compel
• demand
• expect
• instruct
• involve
• obligate
• oblige
• order
• request
• take