indispensable

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: in=dis=pen=sa=ble

CIDE DICTIONARY

indispensable, a. [Pref. in- not + dispensable: cf. F. indispensable.].

•  Not dispensable; impossible to be omitted, remitted, or spared; absolutely necessary or requisite.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not admitting dispensation; not subject to release or exemption.  [1913 Webster]

  "The law was moral and indispensable."  [1913 Webster]
•  Unavoidable; inevitable.  Fuller.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

indispensable, adj.
1 (often foll. by to, for) that cannot be dispensed with; necessary.
2 (of a law, duty, etc.) that is not to be set aside.

Derivative

indispensability n. indispensableness n. indispensably adv.

Etymology

med.L indispensabilis (as IN-(1), DISPENSABLE)

THESAURUS

indispensable

bare necessities, basic, bedrock, call for, called for, cardinal, central, compelling, compulsory, crucial, demand, demand for, demanded, desideration, desideratum, essential, essentials, focal, fundamental, imperative, important, in demand, indicated, ineluctable, inescapable, irreducible, irreductible, irreplaceable, key, life-and-death, life-or-death, mandatory, material, must, must item, necessaries, necessary, necessities, necessitous, necessity, need, need for, needed, needful, obligatory, occasion, of the essence, of vital importance, prerequirement, prerequisite, required, requirement, requisite, requisition, sine qua non, substantive, the necessary, the needful, unavoidable, unforgoable, urgent, vital, want, wanted

ROGET THESAURUS

indispensable

Requirement

N requirement, need, wants, necessities, necessaries, necessaries of life, stress, exigency, pinch, sine qua non, matter of necessity, case of need, case of life or death, needfulness, essentiality, necessity, indispensability, urgency, requisition, run upon, demand, call for, charge, claim, command, injunction, mandate, order, precept, desideratum, want, Adj, required, requisite, needful, necessary, imperative, essential, indispensable, prerequisite, called for, in demand, in request, urgent, exigent, pressing, instant, crying, absorbing, in want of, destitute of, ex necessitate rei, of necessity, there is no time to lose, it cannot be spared, it cannot be dispensed with, mendacem memorem esse oportet, necessitas non habet legem, nec tecum possum trivere nec sine te.