different between urgent vs needful

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French urgent (“pressing, impelling”), from Latin urg?ns, from urg?re (“to press”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, General Australian) IPA^(key): /???d??nt/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /??d??nt/
• Hyphenation: ur?gent

Adjective

urgent (comparative more urgent, superlative most urgent)

1. Requiring immediate attention.

   Synonyms: pressing, needly

Usage notes

The primary meaning of urgent is as a description of a pressing need. Especially in journalistic contexts, it is sometimes used by transference to describe the thing needed, or to mean "happening very soon", which some deem erroneous.

Derived terms

Related terms

• urge

Translations

Anagrams

• Gunter, gunter, gurnet

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin urgens.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /u???ent/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ur??en/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /u??d??ent/

Adjective

urgent (masculine and feminine plural urgents)

1. urgent

Derived terms

• urgentment

Related terms

• urgència
• urgir

Further reading

• “urgent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “urgent” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “urgent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “urgent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin urgens, present participle of urge?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /y?.???/

Adjective

urgent (feminine singular urgente, masculine plural urgents, feminine plural urgentes)

1. urgent

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

• pressé

Further reading

• “urgent” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?ur.?ent/, [??r??n?t?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?ur.d??ent/, [?urd???n?t?]

Verb

urgent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of urge?

Piedmontese

Alternative forms

• ürgent

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /yr?d????t/

Adjective

urgent

1. urgent

Romanian

Etymology

From French urgent, from Latin urgens.

Adjective

urgent m or n (feminine singular urgent?, masculine plural urgen?i, feminine and neuter plural urgente)

1. urgent

Declension

English

Alternative forms

• nedefull, needfull

Etymology

From Middle English needeful, nedeful, from Old English n?odful (“necessary; earnest; zealous”). Equivalent to need +? -ful. Cognate with Dutch noodvol, German notvoll.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ni?df?l/
• Hyphenation: need?ful

Adjective

needful (comparative more needful, superlative most needful)

1. Needed; necessary; mandatory; requisite; indispensible.

   Antonym: needless

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 5

     So I went to keep house with him at the Why Not? and my aunt sent down my bag of clothes, and would have made over to Elzevir the pittance that my father left for my keep, but he said it was not needful, and he would have none of it.

2. (archaic) Needy; in need.
   • 1860, Union Society of Savannah, Minutes of the Union Society (page 114)

     […] where his active benevolence was ever found in cheerful co-operation for the cause of the humble & needful orphan […]

Derived terms

• needfully
• needfulness

Noun

needful (plural needfuls)

1. (slang) Ready money; wherewithal.
2. (India, chiefly archaic in other dialects) Anything necessary or requisite.

Usage notes

Commonly found in phrases such as "kindly do the needful", which occurs commonly in Indian English but is held as archaic in other dialects. Global interactions between English speakers have to some extent led to these phrases being seen as stereotypical of Indian English and parodied by speakers of other dialects.

Derived terms

• do the needful

Anagrams

• Neufeld