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Need
Definitions
- 1 A requirement for something; something needed. countable, uncountable
"There's no need to speculate; we can easily find out for sure."
- 2 the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior wordnet
- 3 Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution. countable, uncountable
"Famine is in thy cheeks; Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes."
- 4 anything that is necessary but lacking wordnet
- 5 a condition requiring relief wordnet
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- 6 a state of extreme poverty or destitution wordnet
- 1 To have an absolute requirement for. transitive
"Living things need water to survive."
- 2 have need of wordnet
- 3 To want strongly; to feel that one must have something. transitive
"After ten days of hiking, I needed a shower and a shave."
- 4 have or feel a need for wordnet
- 5 To be obliged or required (to do something). modal
"I need not go if I don't want to, need I?"
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- 6 require as useful, just, or proper wordnet
- 7 To be required; to be necessary. intransitive
"When we have done it, we have done our duty, and all that is in our power, and indeed all that needs."
- 8 To be necessary (to someone). obsolete, transitive
"More ample spirit, then hitherto was wount, / Here needes me […]"
Etymology
From Middle English need, nede, a merger of two terms: * Old English nīed (West Saxon), nēd (Mercian), nēad (“necessity, compulsion, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *naudi, from Proto-Germanic *naudiz, from Proto-Indo-European *neh₂w- (“death”). * Old English nēod (“desire, longing”), from Proto-West Germanic *niudi (“desire, eagerness”), from Proto-Indo-European *new- (“to incline, tend, move, push, nod, wave”).
From Middle English neden, from Old English nēodian.
See also for "need"
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Unscramble this word: need