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Need vs Demand - What's the difference?

need | demand |

As nouns the difference between need and demand

is that need is a requirement for something while demand is the desire to purchase goods and services.

As verbs the difference between need and demand

is that need is to be necessary (to someone) while demand is to request forcefully.

need

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) need, nede, partly from (etyl) . More at (l). Old norse nauð(r) ("powerty,distress, lack of")

Noun

(en noun)
  • A requirement for something.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • I have no need to beg.
  • * (Jeremy Taylor) (1613–1677)
    • Be governed by your needs , not by your fancy.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.
  • Something required.
  • Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • Famine is in thy cheeks; / Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes.
    Usage notes
    * Adjectives often used with "need": urgent, dire, desperate, strong, unmet, bad, basic, critical, essential, big, terrible, modest, elementary, daily, everyday, special, educational, environmental, human, personal, financial, emotional, medical, nutritional, spiritual, public, developmental, organizational, legal, fundamental, audio-visual, psychological, corporate, societal, psychosocial, functional, additional, caloric, private, monetary, physiological, mental.
    Derived terms
    (Derived terms) * if need be * in need, in need of; a friend in need is a friend indeed * need-based * needful, needfully, needfulness * needless, needlessly, needlessness * needy, needily, neediness

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) neden, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be necessary (to someone).
  • * , II.ix:
    • More ample spirit, then hitherto was wount, / Here needes me.
  • (label) To have an absolute requirement for.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Tom Fordyce, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland , passage=Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.}}
  • (label) To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
    • , title= Geothermal Energy , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}
  • (label) To be obliged or required (to do something).
  • (label) To be required; to be necessary.
  • * (John Locke) (1632-1705)
    • When we have done it, we have done all that is in our power, and all that needs .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
    • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.}}
    Usage notes
    * The verb is construed in a few different ways: ** With a direct object, as in “I need your help.” ** With a to -infinitive, as in “I need to go.” Here, the subject of serves implicitly as the subject of the infinitive. ** With a clause of the form “for [object] to [verb phrase]”, or simply “[object] to [verb phrase]” as in “I need for this to happen” or “I need this to happen.” In both variants, the object serves as the subject of the infinitive. ** As a modal verb, with a bare infinitive; in negative polarity contexts, such as questions (“Need I say more?”), with negative expressions such as not (“It need not happen today”; “No one need ever know”), and with similar constructions (“There need only be a few”; “it need be signed only by the president”; “I need hardly explain the error”). . ** With a gerund-participle, as in “The car needs washing”, or (in certain dialects) with a past participle, as in “The car needs washed”[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003106.html] (both meaning roughly “The car needs to be washed”). ** With a direct object and a predicative complement, as in “We need everyone here on time” (meaning roughly “We need everyone to be here on time”) or “I need it gone” (meaning roughly “I need it to be gone”). ** In certain dialects, and colloquially in certain others, with an unmarked reflexive pronoun, as in “I need me a car.” * A sentence such as “I need you to sit down” or “you need to sit down” is more polite than the bare command “sit down”, but less polite than “please sit down”. It is considered somewhat condescending and infantilizing, hence dubbed by some “the kindergarten imperative”, but is quite common in American usage.“ You Need To Read This: How need to vanquished have to, must, and should.” by Ben Yagoda, Slate, July 17, 2006
    Synonyms
    * (desire) desire, wish for, would like, want, will (archaic) * (lack) be without, lack * (require) be in need of, require
    Derived terms
    * needed, unneeded * need-to-know basis

    References

    Statistics

    *

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * * 1000 English basic words ----

    demand

    English

    Alternative forms

    * demaund, demaunde (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The desire to purchase goods and services.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Michael Sivak
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Will AC Put a Chill on the Global Energy Supply? , passage=Nevertheless, it is clear that the global energy demand' for air-conditioning will grow substantially as nations become more affluent, with the consequences of climate change potentially accelerating the ' demand .}}
  • (economics) The amount of a good or service that consumers are willing to buy at a particular price.
  • A need.
  • A claim for something.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;
  • A requirement.
  • An urgent request.
  • An order.
  • (electricity supply) A measure of the maximum power load of a utility's customer over a short period of time; the power load integrated over a specified time interval.

    • Usage notes

    One can also make demands on someone. * See for uses and meaning of demand collocated with these words.

    Synonyms

    * (a requirement) imposition

    Derived terms

    * demand-driven * in demand * on demand

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To request forcefully.
  • To claim a right to something.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}
  • To ask forcefully for information.
  • To require of someone.
  • (legal) To issue a summons to court.

    • Synonyms

    * * (ask strongly)

    Anagrams

    * * English control verbs English reporting verbs