necessitate

verb

ne·​ces·​si·​tate ni-ˈse-sə-ˌtāt 

necessitated; necessitating

transitive verb

1

: to make necessary : require

Business was growing, which necessitated the hiring of additional employees.

2

: force, compel

was necessitated to choose some other route

necessitation

ni-ˌse-sə-ˈtā-shən 

noun

Synonyms

• require
• need

Examples of necessitate in a Sentence

New safety regulations necessitated adding a railing to the stairs.

getting new shoes would necessitate another trip to the mall

Recent Examples on the Web

Such a big rotation would almost necessitate the use of one- or zero-starter lineups. —Eric Koreen, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2025

That required extracting every bit of performance, necessitating a last-minute change during final testing. —ArsTechnica, 29 Sep. 2025

Even that can get adjusted depending on weather without necessitating a delay. —Joe Nguyen, Denver Post, 29 Sep. 2025

With Argyle’s offense in high gear, that necessitated Heritage going for it on fourth down six times -- including four in the first half -- converting three of those, two of which led to TDs in the opening half. —Mike Waters, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1625, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for necessitate

• abbreviate
• accelerate
• accommodate
• accumulate
• acuminate
• adjudicate
• adulterate
• affiliate
• agglomerate
• agglutinate
• alleviate
• amalgamate

Kids Definition

necessitate

verb

ne·​ces·​si·​tate ni-ˈses-ə-ˌtāt 

necessitated; necessitating

: to make necessary

sick enough to necessitate staying home

necessitation

-ˌses-ə-ˈtā-shən 

noun