Need Meaning
/niːd/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA requirement for something; something needed.
nounA desire or craving for the satisfaction of a requirement perceived as essential or primal.
Sentence Examples
I need to ask you a silly question.
It's too bad that I don't need to lose weight.
She refuses to acknowledge the need for reform.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The starving children in the drought ____ food and clean water to survive.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
If you ____ any help with your homework, please don't hesitate to ask.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English need, nede, a merger of two terms: * Old English nīed (West Saxon), nēd (Mercian), nēad (“necessity, compulsion, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *naudi, from Proto-Germanic *naudiz, from Proto-Indo-European *neh₂w- (“death”). * Old English nēod (“desire, longing”), from Proto-West Germanic *niudi (“desire, eagerness”), from Proto-Indo-European *new- (“to incline, tend, move, push, nod, wave”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Being so great, I have no need to beg."
— 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
"Be governed by your needs, not by your fancy."
— 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:
"One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.[…]But out of sight is out of mind. And that, together with the inherent yuckiness of the subject, means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair."
— 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
"Famine is in thy cheeks;
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes."
— c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
"Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off."
— 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The starving children in the drought ____ food and clean water to survive.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
If you ____ any help with your homework, please don't hesitate to ask.