# need

> English word · Noun · IPA /niːd/ · frequency rank #112

## Definitions
1. A requirement for something; something needed.
2. Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.

## Etymology
From Middle English need, nede, a merger of two terms:
* Old English nīed (West Saxon), nēd (Mercian), nēad (“necessity, compulsion, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *naudi, from Proto-Germanic *naudiz, from Proto-Indo-European *neh₂w- (“death”).
* Old English nēod (“desire, longing”), from Proto-West Germanic *niudi (“desire, eagerness”), from Proto-Indo-European *new- (“to incline, tend, move, push, nod, wave”).

## Easily confused with
- **new** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-new)
- **net** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-net)
- **nod** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-nod)
- **nye** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-nye)
- **NES** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-nes)
- **neg** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-neg)
- **Noe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-noe)
- **ney** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-ney)
- **NPD** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-npd)
- **NME** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-nme)
- **NEX** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-nex)
- **ner** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-ner)
- **nep** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-nep)
- **NEH** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-neh)
- **neu** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-neu)
- **next** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-next)
- **news** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-news)
- **Neil** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-neil)
- **nest** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-nest)
- **nets** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/need-vs-nets)

## Common misspellings (4)
`ened`, `nede`, `needd`, `nneed`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/need