needful
Syllables: need·ful/ˈniːdfl̩/
needful adjective: needed; necessary; mandatory; requisite; indispensable.
Adjective
needful (comparative more needful, superlative most needful)
- Needed; necessary; mandatory; requisite; indispensable.
- And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforeſaid, That in every Town in the Colony, where Bread is Baken for Sale, there ſhall be Choſen one Clerk of the Market, or more, as each Town ſhall find needful, at their Annual Election of Town Officers, who ſhall duly be Engaged, to the faithful...1719, “An ACT, Stating the due Aſſize of Bread”, in The Charter Granted by His Majeſty, King Charles the Second, to the Colony of Rhode-Iſland, and Providence-plantations in America, John Allen, page...
- So I went to keep house with him at the Why Not? and my aunt sent down my bag of clothes, and would have made over to Elzevir the pittance that my father left for my keep, but he said it was not needful, and he would have none of it.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC
- Antonyms:
- needless
- Needy; in need.
- […] where his active benevolence was ever found in cheerful co-operation for the cause of the humble & needful orphan […]1860, Union Society of Savannah, Minutes of the Union Society, page 114
Noun
needful (plural needfuls)
- Anything necessary or requisite.
- I think better of you for looking steadily to the needful.1857, Charlotte Bronte, The Professor, collected works, J.M. Dent & Co. 1893, p. 57
- Ready money; wherewithal.
needful meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
needful in Hindi
- needful or requisite thing
- हाजत hājat
needful in Tamil
- இன்றியமையாத, தேவைப்படுகிற, தேவையான
needful in Urdu
- مطلوبہ, ضروری
needful in Malayalam
- ആവശ്യമായ, ഒഴിച്ചുകൂടാത്ത, വേണമെന്നുളള, വേണ്ടത്
More languagesFewer languages
- needful in Gujarati
- જરૂરી jarūrī
Antonyms of needful
Forms of needful
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more needful |
| superlative | most needful |
| alternative form | nedefull |
| alternative form | needfull |
| Noun | |
| plural | needfuls |
Origin of needful
From Middle English needeful, nedeful, from Old English nēodful (“necessary; earnest; zealous”). Equivalent to need + -ful. Cognate with Dutch noodvol, German notvoll.
Words formed from needful
Phrases with needful
Questions about needful
- What does needful mean?
- Needful means needed; necessary; mandatory; requisite; indispensable.
- What is needful in Hindi?
- Needful in Hindi is हाजत (hājat). See Needful meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is needful?
- Needful can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce needful?
- Needful is pronounced /ˈniːdfl̩/.
Words near needful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: needful (page history and authors); हाजत (Hindi) (page history and authors); needful (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); needful (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); needful (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); જરૂરી (Gujarati) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-needful.ogg.
Cite this entry: “needful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/needful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.