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
-
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.
-
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)
-
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
-
requirableadjective
-
unrequiredadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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requiresimple
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requiressimple
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have requiredperfect
-
has requiredperfect
-
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
-
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:
Burnham has said that any changes would require a mandate at a general election, which is next due by 2029.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
“Microsoft has demonstrated that engineering can unlock underutilized CPU and GPU capacity, but sustaining near-50% Azure growth will eventually require delayed physical infrastructure to arrive and enter production.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
In densely connected networks, some conventional approaches require what mathematicians call cubic time.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026
If a future council opts to change or eliminate the board, it would require 10 votes — or 12 if the mayor vetoed such a move.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
“Dogs are wonderful, but they require a lot of our time. Could it be that the puppy’s taking too much of your time?”
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
As in the Gilded Age, winning the presidency requires reconciling competing factions, as McKinley, Roosevelt and Wilson discovered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
It added: "That would be illegal under EU law, which requires the full price to be shown upfront."
From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026
The judge wrote that Trump's legal team did not prove that the defendants made defamatory statements with "actual malice", which the law requires be proven.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
Meeting the World Health Organization’s goal requires moving away from guesswork and using spatial risk data to guide real-world policy.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026
“Basketball requires a complex combination of many diverse skills,” said Farooqi.
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
Mr. Murakami isn’t required to go into the historical details of these atrocities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
But the groups said they could not comply with those demands because they must follow election procedures required by state and federal law.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
Neither O’Keefe nor Higby cast a ballot or signed the required vouching oath.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2026
Charter Amendment EE would cut the number of required L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026
Unfortunately, proving that required tracking down my least favorite person.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
The Venice Commission later recommended that judges should be able to assume office without requiring a presidential oath.
From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026
“Bribery,” a specific form of corruption requiring a quid pro quo exchange of favors for something of value, is part of the final constitutional definition of impeachable conduct.
From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2026
Are we underestimating the financial consequences of one of us dying relatively soon, or of either of us requiring long-term care?
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
No car company offers fully autonomous technology; even Tesla’s Full Self-Driving is described as requiring human supervision.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
For years, he and Madame Lavoisier occupied themselves with extremely exacting studies requiring the finest measurements.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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