unnecessary

[uhn-nes-uh-ser-ee]

adjective

1. not necessary or essential; needless; unessential.

noun

plural

unnecessaries 

1. unnecessaries, things that are not necessary or essential.

unnecessary

/ ʌnˈnɛsɪsərɪ, -ɪsrɪ /

adjective

1. not necessary

Other Word Forms

• unnecessariness noun
• unnecessarily adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of unnecessary¹

First recorded in 1540–50; un- ¹ + necessary

Example Sentences

Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson, 55, shook her head when asked about the military presence, and said the whole situation seemed unnecessary and overblown.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Some of it was necessary — our back deck was rotting away, roof damage etc., — and some of it was completely unnecessary.

Read more on MarketWatch

Caroline Clapper, who sits on both Hertfordshire County and Hertsmere Borough councils, said a by-election would incur "a significant and unnecessary cost to the taxpayer".

Read more on BBC

“The Fed remains reasonably upbeat on U.S. growth prospects, but just doesn’t want to take any unnecessary risks with higher unemployment,” said ING’s global head of markets Chris Turner.

Read more on Barron's

Yet therapists, he says, sometimes caution people against sharing them with a partner, warning that it could create unnecessary conflict or even doom the relationship.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• avoidable www.thesaurus.com
• futile 
• gratuitous 
• irrelevant 
• needless 
• redundant 
• superfluous 
• unneeded www.thesaurus.com
• useless 
• worthless