NEED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does need mean? 

• NEED (noun)
  The noun NEED has 4 senses:

1. a condition requiring relief

2. anything that is necessary but lacking

3. the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior

4. a state of extreme poverty or destitution

  Familiarity information: NEED used as a noun is uncommon.

• NEED (verb)
  The verb NEED has 3 senses:

1. require as useful, just, or proper

2. have need of

3. have or feel a need for

  Familiarity information: NEED used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NEED (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A condition requiring relief

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

demand; need

Context example:

there is a demand for jobs

Hypernyms ("need" is a kind of...):

condition; status (a state at a particular time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "need"):

deficiency; lack; want (the state of needing something that is absent or unavailable)

necessity (the condition of being essential or indispensable)

Derivation:

need (have need of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Anything that is necessary but lacking

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

need; want

Context example:

I tried to supply his wants

Hypernyms ("need" is a kind of...):

essential; necessary; necessity; requirement; requisite (anything indispensable)

Derivation:

need (require as useful, just, or proper)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior

Classified under:

Nouns with no superordinates

Synonyms:

motivation; motive; need

Context example:

he acted with the best of motives

Hypernyms ("need" is a kind of...):

psychological feature (a feature of the mental life of a living organism)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "need"):

life (a motive for living)

rational motive (a motive that can be defended by reasoning or logical argument)

irrational motive (a motivation that is inconsistent with reason or logic)

impulse; urge (an instinctive motive)

ethical motive; ethics; morality; morals (motivation based on ideas of right and wrong)

mental energy; psychic energy (an actuating force or factor)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A state of extreme poverty or destitution

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

indigence; need; pauperism; pauperization; penury

Context example:

a general state of need exists among the homeless

Hypernyms ("need" is a kind of...):

impoverishment; poorness; poverty (the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "need"):

beggary; mendicancy; mendicity (the state of being a beggar or mendicant)

Derivation:

needy (poor enough to need help from others)

• NEED (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they need    ... he / she / it needs   
Past simple: needed   
Past participle: needed   
-ing form: needing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Require as useful, just, or proper

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

ask; call for; demand; involve; necessitate; need; postulate; require; take

Context example:

This intervention does not postulate a patient's consent

Verb group:

claim; exact; take (take as an undesirable consequence of some event or state of affairs)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "need"):

claim; exact; take (take as an undesirable consequence of some event or state of affairs)

govern (require to be in a certain grammatical case, voice, or mood)

draw (require a specified depth for floating)

cost (require to lose, suffer, or sacrifice)

cry for; cry out for (need badly or desperately)

compel (necessitate or exact)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They need him to write the letter

Derivation:

need (anything that is necessary but lacking)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Have need of

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

need; require; want

Context example:

This piano wants the attention of a competent tuner

Hypernyms (to "need" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "need"):

cry (demand immediate action)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence examples:

They need more bread
They need him to write the letter
They need to move

Derivation:

need (a condition requiring relief)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Have or feel a need for

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Context example:

always needing friends and money

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

Our presence is most urgently needed.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“And she would need to be,” said Holmes gravely.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Slowly the mast swung in until it balanced at right angles across the rail; and then I discovered to my amazement that there was no need for Maud to slack away.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His was essentially a love-nature, and he possessed more than the average man's need for sympathy.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I have already observed that they are subject to no diseases, and therefore can have no need of physicians.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"For," he said, "if I should get caught in the rain, and rust again, I would need the oil-can badly."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I sense you need to unplug for a while.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I was badly in need of a case, and this looks, from the man’s impatience, as if it were of importance.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

One Eye moved impatiently beside her; her unrest came back upon her, and she knew again her pressing need to find the thing for which she searched.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

There was no need to tell me so.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)