necessity synonyms

necessity

n.

  1. The state of being required

    need, compulsion, constraint, pressure, obligation, needfulness, essentiality, indispensability, undeniability, requisiteness, prerequisiteness; see also need 3, requirement 2.

  2. That which is needed

    need, want, requisite, vital part, essential, demand, imperative, fundamental, claim, exaction, desideratum, must*; see also lack 2, need 3, requirement 2.

  3. The state of being forced by circumstances

    exigency, pinch, stress, urgency, extremity, destitution, privation, obligation, inexorableness, inescapableness, case of life or death; see also emergency, poverty 1, 2. See syn. study at need.

of necessity

inevitably, importantly, surely; see necessarily.

Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.