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necessary - 20 thesaurus results
| Main Entry: | necessary |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | essential |
| Synonyms: | basic, binding, cardinal, chief, compelling, compulsory, crucial, de rigueur*, decisive, elementary, exigent, expedient, fundamental, imperative, indispensable, mandatory, momentous, needed, obligatory, paramount, prerequisite, pressing, prime, principal, quintessential, required, requisite, significant, specified, unavoidable, urgent, vital, wanted, all-important, bottom-line, incumbent on, name of game, needful |
| Antonyms: | unimportant, unnecessary, useless, inessential |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | necessary |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | inevitable |
| Synonyms: | assured, certain, fated, imminent, ineluctable, inescapable, inexorable, infallible, unavoidable, undeniable, ineludible, inerrant, inevasible, returnless, unescapable |
| Antonyms: | contingent, needless, optional, voluntary |
| Main Entry: | basic |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | elementary, fundamental |
| Synonyms: | basal, capital, central, chief, elemental, essential, indispensable, inherent, intrinsic, key, main, necessary, primary, primitive, principal, radical, underlying, vital, substratal |
| Antonyms: | additional, extra, nonessential, outside, peripheral, secondary, inessential |
| Main Entry: | compulsory |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | binding |
| Synonyms: | de rigueur, forced, imperative, imperious, mandatory, necessary, obligatory, required, requisite, compulsatory |
| Antonyms: | free, optional, voluntary, liberalized, liberated, unstipulated |
| Main Entry: | crucial |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | critical, important |
| Synonyms: | acute, central, clamorous, compelling, deciding, decisive, desperate, dire, essential, imperative, insistent, momentous, necessary, pivotal, pressing, searching, showdown*, touchy, urgent, vital, climacteric, climatic, hanging by thread, high-priority, on thin ice, touch and go |
| Notes: | the words crucial, essential, and vital cannot be qualified (cannot be more or less...) |
| Antonyms: | trivial, uncritical, unimportant, inessential |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | deciding |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | determining |
| Synonyms: | chief, conclusive, critical, crucial, decisive, important, influential, key, necessary, prime, principal, significant |
| Antonyms: | inconclusive, insignificant, secondary, trivial, uncritical, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | de rigeur |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | proper, right |
| Synonyms: | au fait, becoming, conventional, correct, decent, decorous, done, fitting, necessary, required, comme il faut |
| Antonyms: | improper, wrong |
| Main Entry: | fundamental |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | basic, important |
| Synonyms: | axiomatic, basal, bottom, cardinal, central, constitutional, crucial, elemental, elementary, essential, first, indispensable, integral, intrinsic, key, major, necessary, organic, original, paramount, primary, prime, primitive, primordial, principal, radical, requisite, rudimentary, significant, structural, supporting, theoretical, underlying, vital, axiological, bottom-line, constitutive, foundational, grass-roots, meat-and-potatoes, substratal, substrative, sustaining, underived |
| Antonyms: | additional, advanced, auxiliary, extra, minor, secondary, subordinate, trivial, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | inevitable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | certain; cannot be avoided |
| Synonyms: | assured, binding, compulsory, decided, destined, determined, doomed, fated, fateful, fixed, imminent, impending, in the bag*, ineluctable, inescapable, inexorable, inflexible, irresistible, irrevocable, necessary, obligatory, ordained, pat*, prescribed, settled, sure, unalterable, unavoidable, undeniable, all locked up, decreed, for certain, foreordained, ineludible, no ifs ands or buts, unpreventable, without recourse |
| Antonyms: | avoidable, doubtful, fortuitous, uncertain, unlikely, unsure, escapable, preventable |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | inexorable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | cruel, pitiless |
| Synonyms: | adamant, bound, bound and determined, compulsory, dogged, hard, harsh, immobile, immovable, implacable, ineluctable, inescapable, inflexible, ironclad, mean business*, merciless, necessary, obdurate, obstinate, relentless, remorseless, resolute, rigid, severe, single-minded, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, adamantine, dead set on, hell bent on, like death and taxes, locked in, no going back, set in stone, unappeasable, unmovable |
| Antonyms: | flexible, lenient, merciful, remorseful, yielding |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | logical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | probable, reasonable |
| Synonyms: | analytical, clear, cogent, coherent, compelling, congruent, consequent, consistent, convincing, deducible, discerning, discriminating, fair, germane, inferential, intelligent, judicious, justifiable, kosher*, legitimate, lucid, necessary, obvious, perceptive, perspicuous, pertinent, plausible, rational, relevant, sensible, sound, subtle, telling, valid, wise, analytic, commonsensical, extensional, holding together, holding water, juridicious, legit, most likely, well-organized |
| Antonyms: | illogical, improbable, irrational, unlikely, unreasonable |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | must |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | necessity, essential |
| Synonyms: | charge, commitment, condition, duty, fundamental, imperative, necessary, need, obligation, prerequisite, requirement, requisite, right, committal, devoir, ought, precondition, sine qua non |
| Main Entry: | necessity |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | need, essentiality |
| Synonyms: | call, cause, claim, compulsion, demand, duress, essence, essential, exigency, fundamental, godsend*, imperative, must, necessary, obligation, pinch, prerequisite, privation, requirement, requisite, stress, urgency, want, desideratum, exaction, indispensability, inevitability, inexorableness, life or death, needfulness, no alternative, no choice, precondition, sine qua non, undeniability, vital part, vitals |
| Antonyms: | desire, want |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | obligatory |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | essential, required |
| Synonyms: | binding, compulsory, de rigueur, enforced, imperative, imperious, mandatory, necessary, requisite, unavoidable, coercive, compulsatory |
| Antonyms: | nonessential, optional, voluntary, unrequired |
| Main Entry: | organic |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | basic, natural |
| Synonyms: | animate, basal, biological, constitutional, elemental, essential, fundamental, inherent, innate, integral, live, living, necessary, original, primary, prime, primitive, principal, structural, vital, amoebic, anatomical, biotic, cellular, nuclear, plasmic |
| Antonyms: | inorganic, man-made, unnatural |
| Main Entry: | unavoidable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | bound to happen |
| Synonyms: | certain, compulsory, fated, impending, ineluctable, inescapable, inevitable, inexorable, necessary, obligatory, set, sure, ineludible, inevasible, locked up, open and shut, unescapable |
| Antonyms: | avoidable, escapable |
| Main Entry: | undeniable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | definite, proven |
| Synonyms: | actual, binding, certain, clear, compulsory, evident, for sure*, incontrovertible, indisputable, indubitable, irrefutable, manifest, necessary, obligatory, obvious, patent, positive, real, sound, sure, sure thing*, true, undoubted, unquestionable, beyond doubt, beyond question, inarguable, incontestable, no ifs and or buts, open and shut, unanswerable, unassailable |
| Antonyms: | disputable, indefinite, contestable, doubted, unproven |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | underlying |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | fundamental, latent |
| Synonyms: | basal, basic, bottom, cardinal, concealed, critical, crucial, elemental, elementary, essential, hidden, indispensable, intrinsic, lurking, necessary, nitty-gritty*, nub, primary, prime, primitive, radical, root, veiled, vital, bottom-line, needful, substratal |
| Antonyms: | secondary |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | urgent |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | needing immediate attention |
| Synonyms: | burning*, capital, chief, clamant, clamorous, compelling, critical, crucial, crying*, demanding, driving, essential, exigent, foremost, heavy*, immediate, imperative, important, importunate, indispensable, insistent, instant, leading, momentous, necessary, paramount, persuasive, pressing, primary, principal, required, salient, serious, touchy*, vital, wanted, weighty*, called-for, demanded, hurry-up, impelling, life and death, top-priority, touch and go |
| Antonyms: | moderate, unimportant, unnecessary |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | incumbent |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | obligatory |
| Synonyms: | binding, compelling, necessary, urgent |
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
