Synonyms of needful

needful 1 of 2

adjective

ˈnēd-fəl 

1

as in necessary

impossible to do without

purchase needful provisions

Synonyms & Similar Words

• necessary
• essential
• required
• needed
• integral
• vital
• imperative
• critical
• crucial
• important
• requisite
• must-have
• indispensable
• all-important
• mandatory
• compulsory
• necessitous
• of the essence
• basic
• prerequisite
• urgent
• key
• fundamental
• major
• obligatory
• meaningful
• momentous
• organic
• substantial
• central
• pressing
• significant
• insistent
• consequential
• persistent
• nonelective
• material
• weighty

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• unnecessary
• needless
• nonessential
• unwanted
• unneeded
• unessential
• unimportant
• dispensable
• undesired
• extra
• insignificant
• inessential
• superfluous
• excess
• external
• inconsequential
• extraneous
• surplus

2

as in poor

lacking money or material possessions

let's first help the needful families in our own community

Synonyms & Similar Words

• poor
• impoverished
• broke
• needy
• deprived
• beggared
• necessitous
• beggarly
• destitute
• impecunious
• bankrupt
• indigent
• out of pocket
• famished
• hard up
• penurious
• pauperized
• threadbare
• out at elbows
• penniless
• poverty-stricken
• down-and-out
• depressed
• bankrupted
• dirt-poor
• skint
• disadvantaged
• underprivileged
• distressed
• down on one's luck
• unaffluent
• dispossessed
• ruined
• straitened
• insolvent
• short
• possessionless
• reduced
• bust
• pinched
• tapped out
• hardscrabble
• poorish
• hand-to-mouth
• cash-strapped
• low

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• rich
• wealthy
• affluent
• moneyed
• opulent
• well-to-do
• fat
• flush
• comfortable
• prosperous
• well-off
• well-heeled
• silk-stocking
• fat-cat
• deep-pocketed

needful

2 of 2

noun

1

as in money

something (as pieces of stamped metal or printed paper) customarily and legally used as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment

fortunately, the family had the needful to stock up the larder before the long hard winter

Synonyms & Similar Words

• money
• cash
• coin
• currency
• bucks
• funds
• tender
• change
• dough
• gold
• lucre
• legal tender
• pelf
• coinage
• chips
• loot
• wampum
• green
• shekels
• moola
• resources
• long green
• bread
• scratch
• lolly
• cabbage
• dollar
• kale
• specie
• scrip
• money order
• means
• promissory note
• wallet
• jack
• paper money
• finances
• bill
• capital
• wherewithal
• note
• folding money
• check
• riches
• pittance
• chump change
• big bucks
• draft
• abundance
• boodle
• wealth
• treasure
• mint
• earth
• dime
• banknote
• mite
• greenback
• roll
• dead presidents
• peanuts
• pocket money
• bundle
• bankroll
• opulence
• fortune
• pin money
• petty cash
• pile
• shoestring
• spending money
• wad
• megabucks
• dibs
• pot
• bomb
• mad money
• cashier's check
• packet
• king's ransom

2

as in must

something necessary, indispensable, or unavoidable

packed a warm jacket and other needfuls for an autumn weekend in the country

Synonyms & Similar Words

• must
• requirement
• necessity
• necessary
• need
• essential
• requisite
• must-have
• demand
• condition
• sine qua non
• prerequisite
• advantage
• precondition
• wish
• plus
• desideratum
• desideration
• edge

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• extra
• surplus
• comfort
• indulgence
• nonessential
• luxury
• superfluity
• surplusage
• extravagance
• nonnecessity
• frill
• amenity

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of needful

Adjective

Her voice is slurred, needful, abject. — Jayson Greene, Pitchfork, 8 May 2026

That image of God never has a problem, never has a disease, never lacks anything needful or truly desirable, and has never sinned. — Douglas Sytsma, Christian Science Monitor, 30 Jan. 2025

Who promises tomorrows to a whole needful planet, restrikes that match? — Corey Van Landingham, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023

They are not found to be such on the injustice and violence of individuals, and lose their efficacy in proportion to the number combined together, that is, in proportion as their efficacy becomes needful. — James Freeman, WSJ, 27 Dec. 2022

For Queen and other Black poets, hip-hop is not only beats and rhymes but something more needful. — Adam Bradley, New York Times, 4 Mar. 2021

Oxfam exhorts its supporters to send things to the needful Cratchits of the developing world. — Matthew Sweet, The Economist, 4 Dec. 2020

McBride was touched by the way, in their later years, Marcroft was the primary caregiver for Joyce, who had become needful of that care. — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 Nov. 2020

Sometimes environments and selection pressures change radically, and large effect mutations may become needful. — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 18 May 2010

Noun

The actor did indeed ‘get it together’ and is doing the needful to make things official. — Elizabeth Ayoola, Essence, 4 Nov. 2024

Even on this side of the border, the supply of people without legal status but needful of income has led to employers’ brazenly violating child-labor laws. — The Editors, National Review, 5 May 2023