requirement
Americannoun
-
something demanded or imposed as an obligation
Latin is no longer a requirement for entry to university
-
a thing desired or needed
-
the act or an instance of requiring
Usage
What does requirement mean? A requirement is something that’s mandatory or necessary—it’s something you need to have or need to do. Requirement is most often used in official contexts in which achieving a certain status requires you to perform certain actions or have certain things, such as documents. Example: By passing this class you have now met all of the basic requirements for your major and will be able to walk at graduation in May.
Synonym Usage
Requirement, requisite refer to that which is necessary. A requirement is some quality or performance demanded of a person in accordance with certain fixed regulations: requirements for admission to college. A requisite is not imposed from outside; it is a factor which is judged necessary according to the nature of things, or to the circumstances of the case: Efficiency is a requisite for success in business. Requisite may also refer to a concrete object judged necessary: the requisites for perfect grooming.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of requirement
Explanation
Necessary, inescapable, and non-negotiable, a requirement is something that must be done, like the dishes. Speaking politely to your grandparents may be a requirement of living in your parents' house. Requirements can be imposed by an authority. For example, in college, it is usually a requirement that you study math, English, and history, before you go on to get your degree in underwater basket weaving. We can also speak of the requirements of a living system: your body requires water to stay alive; light is a requirement of photosynthesis.
Vocabulary lists containing requirement
Academic Vocabulary Toolkit 1, Words 81-90
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Supreme Court healthcare ruling
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"Building Design and Construction Handbook," Vocabulary from Section 1
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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:
Other technical challenges include transferring fuel to Starship in orbit -- a requirement for any journey to the Moon or Mars.
From Barron's ● Nov. 13, 2026
"These were difficult decisions which sought to balance our commitment to children and young people alongside the requirement to live within the funding allocated for the year," the EA said.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2026
The backlash caused the ride-hailing company to rescind the requirement.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
The study failed to meet its predetermined statistical requirement for demonstrating that the calcium scan approach was not meaningfully worse than conventional risk assessment.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
They were nice to me in the way that most people were, like it was a requirement because of who my mom was, but they were a far cry from friends.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
United said there were concerns that outside agents could expose customers’ sensitive information, make unintended purchases or fail to meet certain government requirements.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2026
"It has procedures, inspection processes, licence renewal requirements, environmental standards and community consultative processes that are meant to implement responsible mining," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Nov. 12, 2026
The experiments showed that the new architecture can meet these requirements, providing strong evidence that it can support genuine quantum computation rather than simply function as a memory device.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 12, 2026
The four requirements, however, could present significant obstacles to Eisenkot's potential partners.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2026
These were the basic Pepette requirements, but some girls went beyond in their show of spirit.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
