| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | necessary |
| Synonyms: | acute, burning, clamant, clamorous, compulsory, critical, crucial, crying, essential, exigent, immediate, important, importunate, indispensable, inescapable, insistent, instant, no turning back, obligatory, pressing, urgent, vital |
| Antonyms: | inessential, optional, secondary, unnecessary, voluntary |
| Main Entry: | authoritative |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | domineering |
| Synonyms: | assertive, authoritarian, autocratic, commanding, confident, decisive, dictatorial, doctrinaire, dogmatic, dominating, imperative, imperious, imposing, masterly, officious, peremptory, self-assured |
| Notes: | authoritarian is tyrannical while authoritative commands respect |
| Antonyms: | democratic |
| Main Entry: | binding |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | necessary |
| Synonyms: | bounden, compulsory, conclusive, counted upon, essential, imperative, incumbent on, indissoluble, irrevocable, mandatory, obligatory, required, requisite, unalterable |
| Main Entry: | burning |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important |
| Synonyms: | acute, clamant, clamorous, compelling, critical, crucial, crying, dire, essential, exigent, imperative, importunate, instant, pressing, significant, urgent, vital |
| Antonyms: | unimportant |
| Main Entry: | command |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | directive, instruction |
| Synonyms: | act, adjuration, ban, behest, bidding, call, canon, caveat, charge, citation, commandment, decree, demand, devoir, dictate, dictation, dictum, direction, duty, edict, enactment, exaction, fiat, imperative, imposition, injunction, interdiction, law, mandate, notification, obligation, order, ordinance, precept, prescript, proclamation, prohibition, proscription, regulation, request, requirement, requisition, responsibility, rule, subpoena, summons, ultimatum, warrant, will, word, writ |
| Notes: | an order is being told to do something with no specific guidelines, a command is being told to do something in a specific way, and a directive is being told to do something and getting this information through channels |
| Antonyms: | contradiction, countermand, opposition, recall, reversal, revocation |
| Main Entry: | compulsory |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | binding |
| Synonyms: | compulsatory, de rigueur, forced, imperative, imperious, mandatory, necessary, obligatory, required, requisite |
| Antonyms: | free, liberalized, liberated, optional, unstipulated, voluntary |
| Main Entry: | crucial |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | critical, important |
| Synonyms: | acute, central, clamorous, climacteric, climatic, compelling, deciding, decisive, desperate, dire, essential, hanging by thread, high-priority, imperative, insistent, momentous, necessary, on thin ice, pivotal, pressing, searching, showdown, touch and go, touchy, urgent, vital |
| Notes: | the words crucial, essential, and vital cannot be qualified (cannot be more or less...) |
| Antonyms: | inessential, trivial, uncritical, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | decisive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | definite |
| Synonyms: | absolute, all out, assured, bent, certain, conclusive, crisp, critical, crucial, decided, definitive, determined, fateful, final, firm, flat out, forceful, imperative, imperious, incisive, influential, intent, litmus test, momentous, peremptory, positive, resolute, resolved, set, settled, significant, straight out, strong-minded, trenchant |
| Notes: | decided means recognizable, marked, unmistakable or definite, while decisive means having the power to determine an outcome or being conclusive |
| Antonyms: | indecisive, indefinite, procrastinating, unpositive |
| Main Entry: | dictatorial |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | tyrannical, authoritarian |
| Synonyms: | absolute, arbitrary, arrogant, autocratic, bossy, clamorous, crack-the-whip, despotic, dictative, doctrinaire, dogmatic, domineering, egotistic, firm, haughty, imperative, imperious, iron-handed, oppressive, overbearing, peremptory, pompous, proud, stern, throwing weight around, totalitarian, unlimited, unrestricted |
| Antonyms: | democratic, docile, passive |