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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.

Appeared in the June 24, 2026, print edition as 'Religious Prisoners Need Congress’s Help'.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 23, 2026

I have those crash-out days where I’m like, “Sleep until noon today! Need it! Gotta catch up.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 19, 2026

Need advice on a money-related issue in your life?

From MarketWatch • Jun. 10, 2026

On that fabled date in 1967, The Beatles performed a live rendition of “All You Need Is Love” on the Our World global simulcast.

From Salon • Jun. 4, 2026

Need I say more? cool as a cucumber.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner




Vocabulary lists containing need


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