need

Meanings

Noun

  • A requirement for something; something needed.
  • Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.

Verb

  • To have an absolute requirement for.
  • To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.
  • To be obliged or required (to do something).
  • To be required; to be necessary.
  • To be necessary (to someone).

Related

Similar words

Origin

  • From Middle English need, nede, a merger of two terms:
  • Old English nīed (West Saxon), nēd (Mercian), nēad, from Proto-West Germanic *naudi, from Proto-Germanic *naudiz, from Proto-Indo-European *neh₂w-.
  • Old English nēod, from Proto-West Germanic *neud, from Proto-Germanic *neudaz, from Proto-Indo-European *new- ("to incline, tend, move, push, nod, wave").
  • From Middle English neden, from Old English nēodian.

Modern English dictionary

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