Require vs Need - What's the difference?
require | need |
(label) To ask (someone) for something; to request.
*, Bk.XI:
*:I requyre yow lete vs be sworne to gyders that neuer none of vs shalle after this day haue adoo with other, and there with alle syre Tristram and sire Lamorak sware that neuer none of hem shold fyghte ageynst other nor for wele, nor for woo.
*1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Mark V:
*:I requyre the in the name of god, that thou torment me nott.
To demand, to insist upon (having); to call for authoritatively.
*1998 , Joan Wolf, The Gamble , Warner Books:
*:"I am Miss Newbury," I announced, "and I require to be shown to my room immediately, if you please."
*2009 , Vikram Dodd, The Guardian , 29 December:
*:‘Regrettably, I have concluded, after considering the matter over Christmas, that I can no longer maintain the high standard of service I require of myself, meet the demands of office and cope with the pressures of public life, without my health deteriorating further.’
Naturally to demand (something) as indispensable; to need, to call for as necessary.
*1972 , "Aid for Aching Heads", Time , 5 June:
*:Chronic pain is occasionally a sign of a very serious problem, like brain tumors, and can require surgery.
*2009 , Julian Borger, The Guardian , 7 February:
*:A weapon small enough to put on a missile would require uranium enriched to more than 90% U-235.
To demand of (someone) to do something.
*1970 , "Compulsory Midi", Time , 29 June:
*:After Aug 3 all salesgirls will be required to wear only one style of skirt while on duty: the midi.
*2007 , Allegra Stratton, "Smith to ban non-EU unskilled immigrants from working in UK", The Guardian , 5 December:
*:The government would like to require non-British fiances who wish to marry a British citizen to sit an English test.
A requirement for something.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
* (Jeremy Taylor) (1613–1677)
*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Something required.
Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
To be necessary (to someone).
* , II.ix:
(label) To have an absolute requirement for.
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Tom Fordyce, work=BBC Sport
, title= (label) To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
, title= (label) To be obliged or required (to do something).
(label) To be required; to be necessary.
* (John Locke) (1632-1705)
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
, volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title=
Need is a synonym of require.
As verbs the difference between require and need
is that require is to ask (someone) for something; to request while need is to be necessary (to someone).As a noun need is
a requirement for something.require
English
Verb
(requir)External links
* * * English control verbs ----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)- I have no need to beg.
- Be governed by your needs , not by your fancy.
It's a gas, passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.
- 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, needinessEtymology 2
From (etyl) neden, from (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- More ample spirit, then hitherto was wount, / Here needes me.
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.}}
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.}}
- When we have done it, we have done all that is in our power, and all that needs .
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