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need

[need] / nid /






Usage

What are other ways to say need? The verb need often suggests urgency, stressing the necessity of supplying what is lacking: to need an operation, better food, a match to light the fire. Require, which expresses necessity as strongly as need, occurs most frequently in serious or formal contexts: Your presence at the hearing is required. Successful experimentation requires careful attention to detail. Lack means to be without or to have less than a desirable quantity of something: to lack courage, sufficient money, enough members to make a quorum. 

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

If you absolutely need your car to get to the service station, it’ll cost you about $55 plus fees for parking at the North Hollywood Station and the Pierce College Station.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 2026

He has created a framework where he does not need proof; he can just “see” it.

From Salon • Jun. 11, 2026

Young man, sometimes there is a need to feel down.

From Slate • Jun. 11, 2026

However, Wood Mackenzie is forecasting that US solar additions will be flat over the next five years despite the need for more power supply in part because of headwinds from permitting bottlenecks.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026

If anything, it’s them he’s gonna need to explain himself to.

From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold




Vocabulary lists containing need


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