See need not on Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "need not",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "needed not",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "~",
"2": "-",
"3": "needed not",
"4": "-"
},
"expansion": "need not (third-person singular simple present need not, no present participle, simple past needed not, no past participle)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "British English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "51 49",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
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},
{
"_dis": "47 53",
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{
"_dis": "46 54",
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{
"_dis": "55 45",
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{
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140,
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],
"ref": "2013, Alan Chalmers, What is this thing called Science?, University of Queensland Press, page 36:",
"text": "My example illustrates how circularity can arise in arguments that appeal to experiment. But the very same example serves to show that this need not be the case.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Indicating absence of necessity; needn't, do(es) not have to, do(es) not need to."
],
"id": "en-need_not-en-verb-Tmk-59T-",
"links": [
[
"necessity",
"necessity#English"
],
[
"needn't",
"needn't"
],
[
"have to",
"have to"
],
[
"need to",
"need to"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(chiefly UK, auxiliary) Indicating absence of necessity; needn't, do(es) not have to, do(es) not need to."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "74 26",
"word": "not have to"
},
{
"_dis1": "74 26",
"word": "needn't"
}
],
"tags": [
"UK",
"auxiliary",
"no-past-participle",
"no-present-participle"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"lang_code": "cmn",
"sense": "absence of necessity to do",
"word": "不用"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"lang_code": "eo",
"sense": "absence of necessity to do",
"word": "ne devi"
},
{
"_dis1": "83 17",
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"lang_code": "eo",
"sense": "presence of necessity to not do",
"word": "devi ne"
}
]
},
{
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{
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{
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},
{
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}
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],
"ref": "2018 June 1, Gerard Letterie, “Education is the beacon that lights our path forward in America”, in The Seattle Times:",
"text": "Want ads for what little manual labor there was frequently had the stipulation INNA, an acronym for Italians and Irish Need Not Apply.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Indicating inadvisability; ought not to."
],
"id": "en-need_not-en-verb-qRxRpFZq",
"links": [
[
"inadvisability",
"inadvisability#English"
],
[
"ought",
"ought"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(auxiliary, dated) Indicating inadvisability; ought not to."
],
"tags": [
"auxiliary",
"dated",
"no-past-participle",
"no-present-participle"
]
}
],
"word": "need not"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English verbs",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Esperanto translations",
"Terms with Mandarin translations"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "need not",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "needed not",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "~",
"2": "-",
"3": "needed not",
"4": "-"
},
"expansion": "need not (third-person singular simple present need not, no present participle, simple past needed not, no past participle)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"British English",
"English auxiliary verbs",
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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140,
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],
"ref": "2013, Alan Chalmers, What is this thing called Science?, University of Queensland Press, page 36:",
"text": "My example illustrates how circularity can arise in arguments that appeal to experiment. But the very same example serves to show that this need not be the case.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Indicating absence of necessity; needn't, do(es) not have to, do(es) not need to."
],
"links": [
[
"necessity",
"necessity#English"
],
[
"needn't",
"needn't"
],
[
"have to",
"have to"
],
[
"need to",
"need to"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(chiefly UK, auxiliary) Indicating absence of necessity; needn't, do(es) not have to, do(es) not need to."
],
"tags": [
"UK",
"auxiliary",
"no-past-participle",
"no-present-participle"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English auxiliary verbs",
"English dated terms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
119,
127
]
],
"ref": "2018 June 1, Gerard Letterie, “Education is the beacon that lights our path forward in America”, in The Seattle Times:",
"text": "Want ads for what little manual labor there was frequently had the stipulation INNA, an acronym for Italians and Irish Need Not Apply.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Indicating inadvisability; ought not to."
],
"links": [
[
"inadvisability",
"inadvisability#English"
],
[
"ought",
"ought"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(auxiliary, dated) Indicating inadvisability; ought not to."
],
"tags": [
"auxiliary",
"dated",
"no-past-participle",
"no-present-participle"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "not have to"
},
{
"word": "needn't"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"lang_code": "cmn",
"sense": "absence of necessity to do",
"word": "不用"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"lang_code": "eo",
"sense": "absence of necessity to do",
"word": "ne devi"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"lang_code": "eo",
"sense": "presence of necessity to not do",
"word": "devi ne"
}
],
"word": "need not"
}
Download raw JSONL data for need not meaning in All languages combined (2.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.