need not

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need not

verb need not · needed not

UK, auxiliary, no past participle, no present participle Indicating absence of necessity; needn't, do(es) not have to, do(es) not need to. 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.
Similar: not have to, needn't
auxiliary, dated, no past participle, no present participle Indicating inadvisability; ought not to. Want ads for what little manual labor there was frequently had the stipulation INNA, an acronym for Italians and Irish Need Not Apply.

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verb absence of necessity to do

中文	不用

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MLA

"need not." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/need%20not. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

need not. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/need%20not

Chicago

"need not." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/need%20not.

BibTeX

@misc{need_not_2026,
  title = {need not},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/need%20not},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}