Search Result for "necessary": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. anything indispensable;
- Example: "food and shelter are necessities of life"
- Example: "the essentials of the good life"
- Example: "allow farmers to buy their requirements under favorable conditions"
- Example: "a place where the requisites of water fuel and fodder can be obtained"
[syn: necessity, essential, requirement, requisite, necessary]


ADJECTIVE (2)

1. absolutely essential;

2. unavoidably determined by prior circumstances;
- Example: "the necessary consequences of one's actions"



The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Necessary \Nec"es*sa*ry\, a. [L. necessarius, from necesse
   unavoidable, necessary; of uncertain origin: cf. F.
   n['e]cessaire.]
   1. Such as must be; impossible to be otherwise; not to be
      avoided; inevitable.
      [1913 Webster]

            Death, a necessary end,
            Will come when it will come.          --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Impossible to be otherwise, or to be dispensed with,
      without preventing the attainment of a desired result;
      indispensable; requisite; essential. "'T is necessary he
      should die." --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            A certain kind of temper is necessary to the
            pleasure and quiet of our minds.      --Tillotson.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Acting from necessity or compulsion; involuntary; --
      opposed to free; as, whether man is a necessary or a
      free agent is a question much discussed.
      [1913 Webster]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Necessary \Nec"es*sa*ry\, n.; pl. Necessaries.
   1. A thing that is necessary or indispensable to some
      purpose; something that one can not do without; a
      requisite; an essential; -- used chiefly in the plural;
      as, the necessaries of life.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A privy; a water-closet.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. pl. (Law) Such things, in respect to infants, lunatics,
      and married women, as are requisite for support suitable
      to station.
      [1913 Webster]


WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

necessary
    adj 1: absolutely essential [ant: unnecessary, unneeded]
    2: unavoidably determined by prior circumstances; "the necessary
       consequences of one's actions"
    n 1: anything indispensable; "food and shelter are necessities
         of life"; "the essentials of the good life"; "allow farmers
         to buy their requirements under favorable conditions"; "a
         place where the requisites of water fuel and fodder can be
         obtained" [syn: necessity, essential, requirement,
         requisite, necessary] [ant: inessential,
         nonessential]