different between necessity vs longing

English

Etymology

From Middle English necessite, from Old French necessite, from Latin necessit?s (“unavoidableness, compulsion, exigency, necessity”), from necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”); see necessary.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n??s?s?ti/

Noun

necessity (countable and uncountable, plural necessities)

2. The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite.
3. The condition of being needy; desperate need; lack.
   • 1863, Richard Sibbes, The Successful Seeker, in The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, D.D., Volume VI, James Nichol, page 125,

     For it is in vain for a man to think to seek God in his necessity and exigence, if he seek not God in his ordinances, and do not joy in them.

4. Something necessary; a requisite; something indispensable.
   • 20th century, Tenzin Gyatso (attributed)

     Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.

5. Something which makes an act or an event unavoidable; an irresistible force; overruling power.
   • 1804, Wordsworth, The Small Celandine

     I stopped, and said with inly muttered voice,

     'It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold:

     This neither is its courage nor its choice,

     But its necessity in being old.

6. The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
7. (law) Greater utilitarian good; used in justification of a criminal act.

8. (law, in the plural) Indispensable requirements (of life).

Synonyms

• (state of being necessary): inevitability, certainty

Antonyms

• (state of being necessary): impossibility, contingency
• (something indispensable): luxury

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• necessity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• necessity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• cysteines

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l????/
• Rhymes: -????
• (US) IPA^(key): /?l?????/

Etymology 1

From Middle English longynge, langynge, langand, from Old English langiende, from Proto-Germanic *lang?ndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *lang?n? (“to desire, long for”), equivalent to long +? -ing (present participle ending).

Verb

longing

1. present participle of long

Etymology 2

From Middle English longinge, langynge, from Old English longung, langung (“longing, desire”), from Proto-Germanic *langung?, gerund of Proto-Germanic *lang?n? (“to desire, long for”), equivalent to long +? -ing (gerund ending).

Noun

longing (plural longings)

1. An earnest and deep, not greatly passionate, but rather melancholic desire.
2. The buying of a financial instrument with the expectation that its value will rise

Synonyms

• yearning

Related terms

• long

Translations

See also

• desire
• miss