Unnecessary

How to spell unnecessary

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce unnecessary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unnecessary mean?

1. adjectiveNot needed; more than is required or useful.

Unnecessary in a sentence

• The report was padded with unnecessary detail that nobody read.

• Buying a second printer turned out to be an unnecessary expense.

Where does unnecessary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on the Latin necesse, meaning 'unavoidable' or 'needful', a word that itself comes from ne, meaning 'not', combined with cedere, meaning 'to yield' or 'to give way': what is necessary is literally that which will not give way or cannot be avoided. Latin formed the adjective necessarius from this, and English borrowed 'necessary' through Old French in the 1300s. The negative form 'unnecessary' adds the native English prefix un-, meaning 'not', and is recorded from around the late 1500s. The notorious spelling trap lives at the seam between the prefix and the root: un- ends in n and necessary begins with n, so the word carries a doubled nn, and then the root itself hides a single n, a doubled ss, and a single c. Remembering that you are simply gluing un- onto the existing word necessary explains every one of those letters, including the awkward nn at the join.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• necess- (from Latin necesse: needful, unavoidable)
• -ary (adjective suffix)