needy

1. 1.

   needy people collectively

   “they try to help the needy”

   Broaderpoor people

Other forms of needy

plural

needies·

comparative or superlative

needier

comparative or superlative

neediest

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about needy

What does needy mean?

needy means "poor enough to need help from others". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in needy?

needy has 2 syllables: nee-dy. The stress falls on "nee". In IPA it is /ˈnidi/.

What is another word for needy?

Close synonyms include destitute, impoverished, indigent, necessitous, poverty-stricken. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is needy a common word?

needy is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.