Needn't

//niːdn̩t// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    Need not. British, auxiliary, formal, literary, negative

    "I needn’t have washed the car: shortly after it started raining."

Synonyms

All synonyms
need notneed not

Example

More examples

"You needn't have seen him to the door."

Etymology

need + -n't.

Related phrases

need not

More for "needn't"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.