1. (n.) The quality of being needed, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite\; inevitableness; indispensableness.

2. (n.) The condition of being needy or necessitous; pressing need; indigence; want.

3. (n.) That which is necessary; a necessary; a requisite; something indispensable; -- often in the plural.

4. (n.) That which makes an act or an event unavoidable; irresistible force; overruling power; compulsion, physical or moral; fate; fatality.

5. (n.) The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation.

absolute certainty absoluteness act of God assurance assuredness bare cupboard bare necessities bare subsistence beggarliness beggary call call for cause certain knowledge certainness certainty certitude coaction coercion compulsion compulsiveness condition constraint dead certainty decree definiteness demand demand for deprivation desideration desideratum destitution determinacy determinateness duress empty purse enforcement essential essentials exigency fate fatefulness force majeure forcing foredestiny foregone conclusion foreknowledge foreordination grinding poverty gripe hand-to-mouth existence homelessness impoverishment indefeasibility indigence indispensable indispensableness ineluctability inerrability inerrancy inescapableness inevasibleness inevitability inevitable accident inevitableness inexorability infallibilism infallibility inflexibility irresistibility irrevocability lack mendicancy moneylessness must must item necessaries necessities necessitousness need need for needfulness neediness nonambiguity noncontingency obligation obligement occasion pauperism pauperization penury pinch positiveness predestination predetermination preordination prerequirement prerequisite prescience privation probatum proved fact relentlessness requirement requisite requisiteness requisition restraint sine qua non sureness surety the necessary the needful truth unambiguity unavoidable casualty unavoidableness uncontrollability undeflectability unequivocalness univocity unmistakableness unpreventability unyieldingness vis major want