Word.ws English Dictionary

needham

needham noun: a dessert bar made from sugar, chocolate, coconut, and potato, chiefly made and consumed in Maine in the US.

Noun

needham (plural needhams)

  1. A dessert bar made from sugar, chocolate, coconut, and potato, chiefly made and consumed in Maine in the US.
    • The needham, like this one filled with potato and coconut, is Maine's original chocolate goodie and is just one of the many Maine-inspired [treats...]2009, Down East, volume 56, numbers 1-6, page 55
    • […] thrifty Mainers have found many uses for potatoes over the years, from doughnuts to vodka to their needhams, a quirky dessert and must-have Maine potato treat that's a mixture of coconut and potato dipped in chocolate. […] Dean's Sweets in Portland does a modern version of the needham made with...2016, Great American Eating Experiences: Local Specialties, ... (National Geographic), page 13

Proper noun capitalized: Needham

Needham (countable and uncountable, plural Needhams)

  1. A small village and civil parish in South Norfolk district, Norfolk, England (OS grid ref TM2281).
  2. A town in Choctaw County, Alabama, United States.
  3. An unincorporated community in Johnson County, Indiana, United States, derived from the surname.
  4. A town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, named after Needham Market.
    • Newton joins Brookline and a dozen other towns that have adopted similar bans, including Belchertown, Chelsea, Concord, Malden, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Melrose, Needham, Pelham, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield, and Winchester, according to the state Department of Public Health.2025 January 22, Nick Stoico, “Newton city council approves generational tobacco ban, joining other Mass. towns”, in Boston Globe, archived from the original on 23 Jan 2025
  5. A habitational surname from Old English.

Forms of needham

Noun
pluralneedhams
Proper noun
pluralNeedhams
alternative form (archaic)Neadham

Origin of needham

Thought to have been named after Irish-born American evangelist George Carter Needham.

From Old English nīed (“need, necessity”) + hām (“homestead”), i.e. a place that provided a poor living.

Words formed from needham

Questions about needham

What does needham mean?
Needham means a dessert bar made from sugar, chocolate, coconut, and potato, chiefly made and consumed in Maine in the US.
What part of speech is needham?
Needham can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of needham?
The plural of needham is needhams.

Words near needham in the dictionary

  1. needfull
  2. needfully
  3. needfulness
  4. needfulnesses
  5. needfuls
  6. needham
  7. Needham Heights
  8. Needham Market
  9. Needham's sac
  10. Needham-Schroeder protocol
  11. Needham-Schroeder protocols

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: needham (page history and authors); Needham (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: “needham.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/needham. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.