Word.ws English Dictionary

must needs

must needs verb: a pleonastic intensification of must using the adverb needs, meaning “must necessarily”.

Verb

must needs (third-person singular simple present must needs, no present participle, simple past must needs, no past participle)

  1. (dated, no-past-participle, no-present-participle) A pleonastic intensification of must using the adverb needs, meaning “must necessarily”.
    • […]I have spoke thus much
      To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
      Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
      Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • I remember, before the Dwarf left the Queen, he followed us one day into thoſe gardens, and my Nurſe having ſet me down, he and I being cloſe together, near ſome Dwarf Apple trees, I muſt need ſhew my Wit, by a ſilly Alluſion between him and the Trees, which happens to hold in their Language as it...1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), pages...

Examples of must needs in a sentence

  • To do so would be to descend to the level of these poor peasants who are not content with a mere fiend-dog, but must needs describe him with hell-fire shooting from his mouth and eyes.1901, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter X, in The Hound of the Baskervilles:
  • It seemed to him this must needs be a marvel.1910, H. G. Wells, The History of Mr. Polly:

Forms of must needs

third-person singular presentmust needs
pastmust needs
alternative formneeds must

Questions about must needs

What does must needs mean?
Must needs means a pleonastic intensification of must using the adverb needs, meaning “must necessarily”.
How do you use must needs in a sentence?
To do so would be to descend to the level of these poor peasants who are not content with a mere fiend-dog, but must needs describe him with hell-fire shooting from his mouth and eyes.
What part of speech is must needs?
Must needs is a verb.
What is the past tense of must needs?
The past tense of must needs is must needs.

Words near must needs in the dictionary

  1. mussy
  2. must
  3. must get in front
  4. must have been the wind
  5. must have killed a Chinaman
  6. must needs
  7. must not
  8. must of
  9. must watch
  10. must watches
  11. must weight

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: must needs (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “must needs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/must_needs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.