How to spell necessary

hear itnec·es·sar·y/'nɛsɪ,sɛri/adjectiveSilent and tricky

What it means: Absolutely essential or unavoidable.

In a sentence: It is necessary to wear a helmet when riding a bike.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double s, and an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as neccesary or neccessary.

Same family: necessaries, necessity, necessities, necessarily, unnecessary. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Necessary comes from the Latin word "necessarius," meaning "unavoidable" or "indispensable." English later developed the related noun "necessity" to talk about things we must have, while "necessary" is more often used as an adjective today.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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