Is there a difference between 'entail' and 'necessitate'?

Status
Not open for further replies.

templeguard

New member
Joined
Jul 1, 2022
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
According to Merriam Webster, the two terms are defined as follows:

Definition of entail transitive verb
1: to impose, involve, or imply as a necessary accompaniment or result the project will entail considerable expense
Definition of necessitate transitive verb
1: to make necessary : REQUIRE
Business was growing, which necessitated the hiring of additional employees.

I'm not exactly certain what the definite distinction is; but my hunch says that entail is resultative, meaning that the emphasis is placed on the inevitable conclusion/accompaniment that is bound to follow from the subject doing the entailing. Whereas necessitate is causative, meaning that there are steps/measures needed to be taken to fulfill a required condition stipulated by the subject of necessitating.

Please let me know what parts of my analysis are wrong.
 
Last edited:
I highly recommend you bookmark Fraze.It - each time you look up a word, it gives you links to multiple dictionary definitions as well as loads of example sentences. Those should give you a good idea of how they are used. It will save you (and us) a lot of time and effort.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ask a Teacher

If you have a question about the English language and would like to ask one of our many English teachers and language experts, please click the button below to let us know:

(Requires Registration)
Back
Top