unnecessary
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of unnecessary
Explanation
Anything that is extra or not needed is unnecessary. Wearing long underwear in July is an unnecessary precaution against being cold. If you don't need something, it's unnecessary. You take an unnecessary risk if you get in the car and don't bother to fasten your seatbelt. Driving your car when you could ride a bike instead is an unnecessary use of gasoline. If you keep dropping you pen in class, your teacher might say, "That's unnecessary." Walking your dog with two leashes is definitely unnecessary. That's obvious, but lots of times it's hard to tell what's necessary and what's unnecessary.
Vocabulary lists containing unnecessary
List 3
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List 9
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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:
Although the unnecessary tinkering didn’t damage her truck, other chatbot advice could have.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
That could create opportunities to intervene earlier while avoiding unnecessary treatment for people whose blood changes may not be cancerous.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
If you decide not to serve, however, the law firm recommends that you do so promptly so the estate can be administered without unnecessary delays.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
And part of the reasoning behind those indulgent offseason moves was to make a big trade-deadline move unnecessary.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
The nose-pinch was an unnecessary precaution, because her nose never came within a foot of the water.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
There are some great songs on it, but they're smothered in unnecessaries that made it really cloudy.
From The Guardian ● May 23, 2013
She has the air of somebody who has reached a point in her life where she is dispensing with the unnecessaries.
From Time Magazine Archive
No mission chest piously outfitted at home ever carried to the remote heathen a more useless assortment of unnecessaries than this one brought to me.
From The Portal of Dreams by Buck, Charles Neville
On Thursday, August 5th, the Regiment sorrowfully packed up all unnecessaries and piled them in the regimental dump.
From The Tale of a Trooper by Mackenzie, Clutha N. (Clutha Nantes)
We also had enough unnecessaries to bring us to grief in a couple of weeks.
From Tracks of a Rolling Stone by Coke, Henry J. (Henry John)
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.
