Required

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈkwaɪɹd/

Definitions

1. Marked by being required, essential, or compulsory in a context
2. Describes something that is needed or mandatory for a particular purpose
3. Indicates a state where something must be done or is indispensable

Etymology: The story of "required" is bound up with the language of necessity and obligation, and its lineage stretches back through the legal and administrative jargon of medieval England. This term first appears in English around the early 15th century, when it was used to indicate something demanded by authority or law—a sense it has never quite lost. The word is the past participle of "require," which itself was already well-established by then, having arrived via Old French. "Require" entered Middle English from Old French "requerre," which meant "to ask, seek, demand." That French form traces further back to the Latin "requirere," a compound of "re-" (meaning "again" or "back") and "quaerere" ("to seek, ask"). The sense of "seeking again" in Latin developed into the stronger meaning of "demanding" or "claiming as due." Over time, as the term passed through French and then into English, that strong sense of necessity or obligation attached itself firmly to both the verb and its derivative adjective. The "-ed" ending in "required" is the standard English past participle suffix, marking something as having undergone the action of the verb. Thus, something that is "required" is that which has been demanded or called for by someone in authority, law, or circumstance. The word’s sense has remained remarkably stable over centuries, a testament to how societies have always needed a way to indicate what must be done.

Synonyms: necessary, essential, mandatory, obligatory

Antonyms: optional, unnecessary