Roget's Thesaurus

#601. Necessity

Nouns

involuntariness; instinct, blind impulse; inborn proclivity, innate proclivity; native tendency, natural tendency; natural impulse, predetermination. necessity, necessitation; obligation; compulsion etc. 744; subjection etc. 749; stern necessity, hard necessity, dire necessity, imperious necessity, inexorable necessity, iron necessity, adverse necessity; fate; what must be. destiny, destination; fatality, fate, kismet, doom, foredoom, election, predestination; preordination, foreordination; lot fortune; fatalism; inevitableness etc. adj.; spell etc. 993. star, stars; planet, planets; astral influence; sky, Fates, Parcae, Sisters three, book of fate; God's will, will of Heaven; wheel of Fortune, Ides of March, Hobson's choice. last shift, last resort; dernier ressort [Fr.]; pis aller etc. (substitute) 147 [Fr.]; necessaries etc. (requirement) 630. necessarian, necessitarian; fatalist; automaton.

Verbs

lie under a necessity; befated, be doomed, be destined etc., in for, under the necessity of; have no choice, have no alternative; be one's fate etc. n.. to be pushed to the wall, to be driven into a corner, to be unable to help. destine, doom, foredoom, devote; predestine, preordain; cast a spell etc. 992; necessitate; compel etc. 744.

Adjectives

necessary, needful etc. (requisite) 630. fated; destined etc. v.; elect; spellbound compulsory etc. (compel) 744; uncontrollable, inevitable, unavoidable, irresistible, irrevocable, inexorable; avoidless, resistless. involuntary, instinctive, automatic, blind, mechanical; unconscious, unwitting, unthinking; unintentional etc. (undesigned) 621; impulsive etc. 612.

Adverbs

necessarily etc. adv.; of necessity, of course; ex necessitate rei [Lat.]; needs must; perforce etc. 744; nolens volens [Lat.]; will he nil he, willy nilly, bon gre mal gre [Fr.], willing or unwilling, coute que coute [Fr.]. faute de mieux [Fr.]; by stress of; if need be.

Phrases

it cannot be helped; there is no help for, there is no helping it; it will be, it must be, it needs to be, it must be so, it will have its way; the die is cast; jacta est alea [Lat.]; che sara sara [Fr.]; it is written; one's days are numbered, one's fate is sealed; Fata obstant [Lat.]; diis aliter visum [Lat.]; actum me invito factus [Lat.], non est meus actus [Lat.]; aujord'hui roi demain rien [Fr.]; quisque suos patimur manes [Lat.] [Vergil]; The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. [Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam].