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 of necessitate

• 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

Contingency plans are in place should the security situation deteriorate, which may necessitate reverting individual sailings or the wider structural change of the service back to the Cape of Good Hope route, Maersk said. —Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 4 Feb. 2026

That matters, because FLSA discovery is more public-facing and would necessitate college officials, coaches and staff having to share time sheets, practice schedules, on-field activities notes and other materials relevant to student employment. —Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 4 Feb. 2026

Echard’s intervention operates in direct contrast to this ethos, necessitating a pilgrimage to the top of a parking lot in Toulouse, away from most human activity, to inspect the networks of modern-day communication itself. —Theo Belci, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026

When scripting issues necessitated older characters, Argento built the sets to appear large next to his adult actors. —Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 31 Jan. 2026

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