necessity: Meaning and Definition of

ne•ces•si•ty

Pronunciation: (nu-ses'i-tē), [key]
— pl. -ties.
  1. something necessary or indispensable: food, shelter, and other necessities of life.
  2. the fact of being necessary or indispensable; indispensability: the necessity of adequate housing.
  3. an imperative requirement or need for something: the necessity for a quick decision.
  4. the state or fact of being necessary or inevitable: to face the necessity of testifying in court.
  5. an unavoidable need or compulsion to do something: not by choice but by necessity.
  6. a state of being in financial need; poverty: a family in dire necessity.
  7. the quality of following inevitably from logical, physical, or moral laws.
  8. as an inevitable result; unavoidably; necessarily: Our trip to China must of necessity be postponed for a while.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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