Definition of "necessity" in English

noun

1. The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite.

   • I bought a new table out of necessity. My old one was ruined.

2. The condition of being needy; desperate need; lack.

3. Something necessary; a requisite; something indispensable.

   • A tent is a necessity if you plan on camping.
   • Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.

4. Something which makes an act or an event unavoidable; an irresistible force; overruling power.

   • After eating a full meal, the human body's necessity for food will compel the person to eat again in the future.

5. The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism.

6. (law) Greater utilitarian good; used in justification of a criminal act.

   • doctrine of necessity

7. (law, in the plural) Indispensable requirements (of life).