adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Not needed or necessary.

   "The automatic child-frightener made clowns unnecessary."

2. 2
   Done in addition to requirements; unrequired.

Adjective

1. 1
   not necessary wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

inessentialsparesupererogatorysuperfluousinnecessaryadditional

Antonyms

All antonyms

mustneedusefulessential

Example

More examples

"If two men always have the same opinion, one of them is unnecessary."

Etymology

From un- + necessary.

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