Synonyms for necessary
- basic
- crucial
- decisive
- fundamental
- imperative
- indispensable
- mandatory
- needed
- paramount
- required
- significant
- unavoidable
- urgent
- vital
- binding
- cardinal
- chief
- expedient
- prerequisite
- pressing
- prime
- principal
- requisite
- all-important
- bottom-line
- compelling
- compulsory
- de rigueur
- elementary
- exigent
- incumbent on
- momentous
- name of game
- needful
- obligatory
- quintessential
- specified
- wanted
Antonyms for necessary
- additional
- extra
- inessential
- minor
- nonessential
- optional
- secondary
- trivial
- unimportant
- unnecessary
- voluntary
- insignificant
- contingent
- needless
- useless
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR NECESSARY
It is not necessary to dwell on every incident of this terrible journey.
They look so beautifully, if it only were not necessary to eat them.
The necessary papers were made out and given to the Marshal.
It will not be necessary to repeat in detail the course of my examination.
In the meantime, I will go to Chatterton, and take all necessary precautions.
It is not necessary to claim that it has always worked perfectly.
I don't believe it is necessary for you to tell the Southards anything.
However, we need not always attend, nor is it necessary we should very often be late.
We can know God easily so long as we do not feel it necessary to define Him.
They are not necessary; they might be avoided; at their worst they could be tempered.
WORD ORIGIN
late 14c. "needed, required, essential, indispensable," from Old French necessaire "necessary, urgent, compelling" (13c.), and directly from Latin necessarius "unavoidable, indispensable, necessary," from necesse "unavoidable, indispensable," originally "no backing away," from ne- "not" + cedere "to withdraw, go away, yield" (see cede). The root sense is of that from which there is no evasion, that which is inevitable. Necessary house "privy" is from c.1600. Necessary evil is from 1540s (the original reference was to "woman").