indispensable adj

1 not to be dispensed with; essential; "foods indispensable to good nutrition" [ant: dispensable]

2 absolutely necessary; vitally necessary; "essential tools and materials"; "funds essential to the completion of the project"; "an indispensable worker" [syn: essential]

3 unavoidable; "the routine but indispensable ceremonies of state"

English

Etymology

in- not + dispensable: compare French indispensable

Adjective

1. Not dispensable; impossible to be omitted, remitted, or spared; absolutely necessary or requisite.
2. In the context of "ecclesiastical": Not admitting dispensation; not subject to release or exemption.

   The law was moral and indispensable. -Bp. Burnet

3. : Unavoidable; inevitable.

Derived terms

• indispensability
• indispensably

Translations

Spanish

Adjective

1. 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