desideratum Hear it!

desideratum Definition

de·sid·er·a·tum (di sid′ə rät′əm, -zid′-; -rāt′-)

noun pl. desiderata -·ta (-ə)

something needed and wanted

Etymology: L, neut. of desideratus: see desiderate

desideratum Synonyms

desideratum

n.

objective, aim, goal, heart's desire; see hope 2, purpose 1, requirement 2.

desideratum Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • librarianship: This kind of undermines what I was taught was a first desideratum of librarianship: to be able to retrieve stuff.

Converse of object

  • remain: A corpus containing all the Greek and Latin inscriptions remains a desideratum, tho.
  • supply: The Athenæum has supplied a great desideratum to the city of Carlisle.
  • consider: Why should a picture theory of language be considered the sole desideratum for the correspondence theory of truth?

Preposition: for

  • system: Such a service is a key desideratum for a major research library system.

Adjective modifier

  • great: The publication of these is a great desideratum in the learned world.
  • important: Working out a full grammar of mediation is an important scholarly desideratum, but it's beyond the scope of this module.
  • key: Such a service is a key desideratum for a major research library system.
  • second: A second possible desideratum is that data can be represented in a variety of ways.
  • social: Truth, rather than misinformation, is a social desideratum too and that does require time and effort.