unnecessary

English

WOTD – 3 August 2008

Etymology

un- +‎ necessary

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈnɛ.sə.s(ə)ɹɪ/, /ʌnˈnɛ.səˌsɛ.ɹɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈnɛ.səˌsɛ.ɹi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (UK, US, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈnɛs.ə.ɹɪ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Adjective

unnecessary (comparative more unnecessary, superlative most unnecessary)

1. Not needed or necessary.

   The automatic child-frightener made clowns unnecessary.

   • 2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian‎^[1]:

     Robins, of Torquay, had denied a single charge of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. She claimed the microwave was accidentally turned on by one of the cats after the kitten got inside. But Knutton said the kitten was too small to even get onto the work surface.

2. Done in addition to requirements; unrequired.

Synonyms

• (not needed): superfluous, unneeded, needless, innecessary
• (in addition to requirements): additional, innecessary

Antonyms

• (not needed): necessary, needed
• (in addition to requirements): required, mandatory

Derived terms

Terms derived from unnecessary

• unnecessaries
• unnecessarily
• unnecessariness

Translations

not necessary

• Arabic: غَيْر ضَرُورِيّ‎ (ḡayr ḍarūriyy)
• Armenian: անպետք (hy) (anpetkʿ), ավելորդ (hy) (avelord)
• Azerbaijani: lazımsız, gərəksiz
• Belarusian: непатрэ́бны (njepatrébny)
• Bulgarian: ненужен (bg) (nenužen)
• Catalan: innecessari
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 多餘的／多余的 (zh) (duōyú de), 不必要 (bù bìyào)

• Czech: nepotřebný
• Danish: unødvendig
• Dutch: onnodig (nl)
• Esperanto: nenecesa
• Estonian: liigne
• Finnish: tarpeeton (fi), turha (fi)
• French: inutile (fr)
• Galician: innecesario m
• German: nicht notwendig, unnötig (de)
• Greek: περιττός (el) (perittós)
• Hungarian: szükségtelen (hu)
• Italian: innecessario (it), superfluo (it), eccessivo (it), inutile (it)
• Japanese: 不必要 (ja) (ふひつよう, fuhitsuyō), 不要 (ja) (ふよう, fuyō)
• Korean: 불필요하다 (ko) (bulpiryohada)
• Latin: superforāneus
• Macedonian: непотребен (nepotreben)
• Malayalam: അനാവശ്യ (anāvaśya), അനാവശ്യമായ (anāvaśyamāya)
• Maori: huakore, hiahiakore
• Norwegian: unødvendig
• Plautdietsch: onneedich
• Polish: zbędny (pl), niepotrzebny (pl), niekonieczny
• Portuguese: desnecessário (pt)
• Romanian: inutil (ro), nenecesar, netrebuincios (ro)
• Russian: нену́жный (ru) (nenúžnyj)
• Slovak: nepotrebný, zbytočný
• Spanish: innecesario (es)
• Swedish: onödig (sv)
• Turkish: gereksiz (tr), lüzumsuz (tr), boş yere (tr)
• Ukrainian: непотрі́бний (nepotríbnyj)
• Urdu: خوامخواہ‎ (xām-o-xāh)
• Welsh: diangen (cy)
• Westrobothnian: naulaus