need

/nid/

/nid/

Other forms: needed; needs; needing

A need is something essential: people need food, water, and shelter. When you lack them, you're in need.

Besides physical needs like sleep, people have lots of psychological needs: like for love and friendship. To pass an exam, you need to study. To lose weight, you need to exercise more and eat less. Drug addicts feel a physical need for their drug — so do smokers. Often, we feel we need things that we actually just want: like a new video game or car. When someone is trying hard to get something, they might say "I need it!"

Definitions of need

1. verb

   have need of
   synonyms: require, want

   types:

   cry

   demand immediate action

   type of:

   be

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

   have or feel a need for
   “always needing friends and money”
3. verb

   require as useful, just, or proper
   synonyms: ask, call for, demand, involve, necessitate, postulate, require, take

   claim, exact, take

   take as an undesirable consequence of some event or state of affairs

   types:

   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
4. noun

   a condition requiring relief
   “she satisfied his need for affection”

   “God has no need of men to accomplish His work”

   synonyms: demand

   types:

   deficiency, lack, want

   the state of needing something that is absent or unavailable

   necessity

   the condition of being essential or indispensable

   absence

   the state of being absent

   dearth, famine, shortage

   an acute insufficiency

   deficit

   a deficiency or failure in neurological or mental functioning

   mineral deficiency

   lack of a mineral micronutrient that is essential for normal nutrition or metabolism

   shortness

   the condition of being short of something

   stringency, tightness

   a state occasioned by scarcity of money and a shortage of credit

   requisiteness

   the state of being absolutely required

   urgency

   the state of being urgent; an earnest and insistent necessity

   type of:

   condition, status

   a state at a particular time
5. noun

   anything that is necessary but lacking
   “he had sufficient means to meet his simple needs”

   synonyms: want

   type of:

   essential, necessary, necessity, requirement, requisite

   anything indispensable
6. noun

   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
   synonyms: motivation, motive

   types:

   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

   ground, reason

   a rational motive for a belief or action

   incentive, inducement, motivator

   a positive motivational influence

   deterrence, disincentive

   a negative motivational influence

   abience

   (psychology) an urge to withdraw or avoid a situation or an object

   adience

   (psychology) an urge to accept or approach a situation or an object

   Thanatos, death instinct, death wish

   (psychoanalysis) an unconscious urge to die

   irrational impulse

   a strong spontaneous and irrational motivation

   cacoethes, mania, passion

   an irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action

   itchy feet, wanderlust

   very strong or irresistible impulse to travel

   compulsion, obsession

   an irrational motive for performing trivial or repetitive actions, even against your will

   hedonism

   the pursuit of pleasure as a matter of ethical principle

   conscience, moral sense, scruples, sense of right and wrong

   motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions

   Christ Within, Inner Light, Light, Light Within

   a divine presence believed by Quakers to enlighten and guide the soul

   incitation, incitement, provocation

   something that incites or provokes; a means of arousing or stirring to action

   libidinal energy

   (psychoanalysis) psychic energy produced by the libido

   type of:

   psychological feature

   a feature of the mental life of a living organism
7. noun

   a state of extreme poverty or destitution
   “a general state of need exists among the homeless”

   synonyms: indigence, pauperisation, pauperism, pauperization, penury

   types:

   beggary, mendicancy, mendicity

   the state of being a beggar or mendicant

   type of:

   impoverishment, poorness, poverty

   the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions