Definitions for need

• Definition
• Anagrams (25)

need need

Spelling: [need]

IPA: /nid/

Need is a 4 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 5 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 6 points.

You can make 25 anagrams from letters in need (deen).

Definitions for need

noun

1. a requirement, necessary duty, or obligation:
2. a lack of something wanted or deemed necessary:
3. urgent want, as of something requisite:
4. necessity arising from the circumstances of a situation or case:
5. a situation or time of difficulty; exigency:
6. a condition marked by the lack of something requisite:
7. destitution; extreme poverty:

Idioms

1. if need be, should the necessity arise:

verb (used with object)

1. to have need of; require:

verb (used without object)

1. to be under an obligation (used as an auxiliary, typically in an interrogative or in a negative statement, and followed by infinitive, in certain cases without to; in the 3d person singular the form is need, not needs):
2. to be in need or want.
3. to be necessary:

Origin of need

before 900; (noun) Middle English nede, Old English nēd (WSaxon nīed), cognate with German Not, Old Norse nauth, Gothic nauths; (v.) Middle English neden, Old English nēodian, derivative of t

Examples for need

"They needn't eat their lunch that way," declared his sister.

Citizens, perhaps, need to feel like they can communicate something to science.

I certainly did need you to come along right now and set me straight.

One need not look so high as the old-fashioned stuccoed ceiling.

I need cheerfulness and rest for a long time after this day in town.

We need to recover and grow the idea that the proper answer to bad speech is more and better speech.

So you see, mother, we needn't go to the poorhouse just yet.

To do so is to deify a celebrity for being what we need them to be, while willfully ignoring who they really are.

“For conveniences and shops where you can buy what you need,” it is much easier, he said.

The need for an Ebola vaccine in West Africa has never been greater.