necessity
Pluralnecessities (some meanings)
- 1The fact that something is essential or that it must happen.
The necessity of regular maintenance becomes obvious once a machine starts to fail.
She acted out of necessity rather than personal ambition.
Similarneed, requirement
Note
The root idea behind every other use of the word: Latin necesse, "unavoidable," by way of Old French necessite. Two fixed phrases are worth telling apart. Out of necessity gives a reason: you did it because you had to. Of necessity means "inevitably," as in families that will of necessity be harmed. The first describes a motive, and the second describes a consequence that could not be otherwise.
- 2A thing that is needed or indispensable; something one cannot do without.
A reliable car is a necessity when you live far from town.
For many remote workers, a fast internet connection has become a daily necessity.
Similaressential, requirement, must, requisite
Oppositeluxury
Note
The countable, everyday sense, and the one that most often appears in the plural. Its best-known collocation is bare necessities, which Terry Gilkyson's "The Bare Necessities" (1967) for The Jungle Book made a household phrase. Its natural foil is luxury. Love and compassion can be called "necessities, not luxuries," and that contrast is usually the point whenever someone insists that something is a necessity.
- 3The basic things required to sustain life, such as food, clothing, and shelter.
The court ruled that a guardian must supply every necessity of life to a dependent child.
Food, shelter, and clothing are the necessities the law expects caregivers to provide.
Similaressential, requirement
Oppositeluxury
Note
A legal plural, almost always heard as the necessities of life: food, clothing, shelter and medical care. Unlike the everyday "thing needed" sense, it carries an obligation, because certain people bear a legal duty to supply these things to those in their charge. Failing to provide them is the wrong, so the phrase usually turns up where neglect is alleged.
- 4The condition of being needy; a state of desperate need or lack.
Driven by necessity, the family sold their last few possessions.
He stole the bread out of sheer necessity.
Similarneed, poverty, want, hardship, destitution
Note
Here the necessity belongs to a person, and a possessive usually shows it: in his necessity, in their necessity. Richard Sibbes's The Successful Seeker pairs it with a near-synonym, telling readers to seek God "in his necessity and exigence." That doubling echoes the Latin word's own range of compulsion and exigency. When you read "in my necessity," read it as "in my need," not "in my being necessary."
- 5A force or power that makes an act or event unavoidable; an overruling compulsion.
Bowing to necessity, the general ordered an immediate retreat.
Necessity, not choice, dictated every move the company made that winter.
Similarcompulsion, obligation, constraint
Oppositechoice
Note
Here the word names the compulsion itself rather than the need, keeping close to the Latin root necesse, "unavoidable." Its natural opposite is choice, and the two are often set side by side. In Wordsworth's The Small Celandine (1804), the flower shuts against the cold: "This neither is its courage nor its choice, / But its necessity in being old." Raised to a principle of the universe, the same idea becomes the doctrine denying free will.
- 6The greater good appealed to in justifying an otherwise criminal act; a defense that breaking the law prevented a more serious harm.
Her lawyers raised necessity, arguing she trespassed only to pull the child from the burning car.
The plea of necessity failed because a lawful alternative had clearly been available.
Note
A defense in criminal law, usually framed as the doctrine of necessity. Defendants plead or raise necessity when they argue that breaking the law averted a greater and imminent harm. The harm avoided must outweigh the offense committed. Courts generally reject the plea when a lawful alternative was available, which is why the question of choice sits at the center of most necessity cases.
- 7The denial of free will; the view that all events, material or spiritual, are bound by inevitable cause and effect.
The philosopher defended necessity, holding that every decision follows inevitably from prior causes.
Critics of necessity argue that it leaves no room for genuine moral responsibility.
Similardeterminism
Note
A philosopher's term, also called necessitarianism, and the direct opposite of freedom in voluntary action. Its reach is total: it binds spiritual phenomena as firmly as material ones, so thought and choice fall under inevitable causation just as falling stones do. In debates about free will, defending necessity means denying that any act could have gone otherwise.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of necessity apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
This word came through Middle English "necessite" and Old French "necessite" from Latin "necessitās" (unavoidableness, compulsion, necessity), which derived from "necesse" (unavoidable, inevitable). It is a doublet of Necessitas.