require
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to have need of; need.
He requires medical care.
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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
-
Chiefly British. to desire; wish to have.
Will you require tea at four o'clock?
verb (used without object)
verb
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to have need of; depend upon; want
-
to impose as a necessity; make necessary
this work requires precision
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(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
-
requirernoun
-
prerequireverb (used with object)
-
nonrequirableadjective
-
quasi-requiredadjective
-
requirableadjective
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unrequiredadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
requiresimple
-
requiressimple
-
have requiredperfect
-
has requiredperfect
-
am requiringprogressive
-
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
-
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:
Insurers wanted Congress to require arbitrators to peg payments to out-of-network providers to their in-network rates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry said "several aspects require further examination including the children's legal status, the identities of their biological parents, and the ongoing proceedings in Singapore".
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Some of the work is physically risky and will require crews being lowered in uspended scaffolds known as swing stages used by window cleaners.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
From building wind turbines to reinforcing power grids for rising demand from electric cars, transitioning from fossil fuels to greener economies will require a massive increase in metal extraction.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
"No. I must be firm. This is going to require tact, charm, and subtlety, Belet."
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
Normally OpenAI’s products wouldn’t do the kind of hacking that ExploitGym requires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
By necessity, cloud gaming requires a sufficiently fast internet connection.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
For households who are not able to contribute this much, this milestone requires more time.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
“A story requires a lot of improbable decisions. Maybe they’re not great decisions, but the person doesn’t know that at the time.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Constitution actually says or what it requires of the police.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
"Diesel fuel is required to generate it," she added.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Companies would be required to report certain incidents to DHS and preserve forensic records, including model weights and telemetry, to help investigators determine what happened.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Voters without ID can cast a provisional ballot if they face a “reasonable impediment” to getting the required documents.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
You are correct that most forms of insurance can be declined, with some exceptions — homeowners insurance is typically required by a mortgage lender.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
Nineteen eighties financial innovation had all sorts of consequences, but one of them was a boom in the number of deals between big financial firms that required them to take each other’s credit risks.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
As foreign entities, Apollo and Castlelake have to propose an ownership structure that meets UK and European rules requiring firms to be majority owned and controlled by regional nationals.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
The Bureau of Reclamation is not requiring water cuts for the four upper states over the next two years, the state and local officials said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Save Face has warned of an increase in serious complications linked to BBL procedures, including infections, sepsis and abscesses requiring hospital treatment.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
The system could also convert the frequency of light without requiring additional specialized components.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
Planting rice now has become an automatic, physical action, requiring no concentration.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
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.
