necessarily

adverb

nec·​es·​sar·​i·​ly ˌne-sə-ˈser-ə-lē 

1

: of necessity : unavoidably

The audience was necessarily small.

This endeavor necessarily involves some risk.

2

: as a logical result or consequence

… a holocaust is a disaster, but a disaster is not necessarily a holocaust.

—Harry Shaw

Synonyms of necessarily

• inevitably

Examples of necessarily in a Sentence

the argument that the existence of the universe necessarily implies the existence of an all-powerful being responsible for creating it

Recent Examples on the Web

Jury set to return Wednesday Not all of the experts reviewed by the judge will necessarily testify before the jury. —Amelia Mugavero, CBS News, 22 Apr. 2026

Now a car won’t necessarily drive through each city exactly once. —Erica Klarreich, Quanta Magazine, 22 Apr. 2026

That’s much more on the table now even among people who aren’t necessarily inclined to talk about their interior life or the interior life of other people. —Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times, 22 Apr. 2026

Sheila Morovati, founder and CEO of environmental nonprofit Habits of Waste and a longtime advocate pushing to make Hollywood more sustainable, notes that carpets don’t necessarily need to be broken down into pellets to get re-purposed. —Kirsten Chuba, HollywoodReporter, 22 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing necessarily

• not necessarily

Rhymes for necessarily

• arbitrarily
• customarily
• militarily
• momentarily
• ordinarily
• secondarily
• temporarily
• voluntarily
• airily
• caroli
• merrily
• verily