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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.

Overall, there were far fewer requests for access to long-term care hospitals and inpatient rehab facilities, which are typically used for fragile patients who need even more high-level care than a nursing home can provide.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026

Here’s everything you need to know before you attend.

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

They need permission, not only from the medical team at Carville, but from the health officers of every state they pass through.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly




Vocabulary lists containing need


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