indispensable

adjective

in·​dis·​pens·​able ˌin-di-ˈspen(t)-sə-bəl 

1

: absolutely necessary : essential

an indispensable member of the staff

2

: not subject to being set aside or neglected

an indispensable obligation

indispensability

ˌin-di-ˌspen(t)-sə-ˈbi-lə-tē 

noun

indispensable noun

indispensableness

ˌin-di-ˈspen(t)-sə-bəl-nəs 

noun

indispensably

ˌin-di-ˈspen(t)-sə-blē 

adverb

Synonyms

• essential
• necessary
• integral
• required
• needed
• needful
• vital

Examples of indispensable in a Sentence

fully aware that he was an indispensable assistant, he decided that it was high time that he be paid what he was worth

Recent Examples on the Web

And the United States must continue providing Kyiv with military intelligence, which has been indispensable to tracking Russian troop movements and missile strikes. —Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Foreign Affairs, 23 Sep. 2025

The post linked immediately above reports it being used against users of Homebrew, a tool that’s indispensable for many developers of macOS-compatible apps. —Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 22 Sep. 2025

And that is an indispensable part of what brought Microsoft to Wisconsin. —Ricardo Torres, jsonline.com, 22 Sep. 2025

What began as experiments has long since scaled into invisible infrastructure, indispensable yet almost unnoticed. —Aditya Vikram Kashyap, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1653, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for indispensable

• compensable
• condensable
• defensible
• dispensable
• extensible
• insensible
• ostensible
• comprehensible
• indefensible
• reprehensible
• supersensible
• incomprehensible

Kids Definition

indispensable

adjective

in·​dis·​pens·​able ˌin-dis-ˈpen(t)-sə-bəl 

: absolutely necessary : essential

an indispensable employee

indispensability

-ˌpen(t)-sə-ˈbil-ət-ē 

noun

Legal Definition

indispensable

adjective

in·​dis·​pen·​sa·​ble ˌin-di-ˈspen-sə-bəl 

: having rights so connected to the claims of the parties to an action that the action cannot be adjudicated without affecting those rights see also indispensable party at party