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1. Of greatest importance
   "It is imperative to address these issues to improve well-being";
   - paramount
    
2. Requiring attention or action
   "as nuclear weapons proliferate, preventing war becomes imperative"; "requests that grew more and more imperative"
    
3. (grammar) relating to verbs in the imperative mood

1. Some duty that is essential and urgent
    
2. A verb in the imperative mood.
   - imperative verb
    
3. A mood that expresses an intention to influence the listener's behaviour
   - imperative mood, jussive mood, imperative form

Derived forms: imperatives

See also: adjuratory, assertive, clamant, crucial, crying, desperate, exigent, important, insistent, instant, peremptory, pressing, self-asserting, self-assertive, shrill, strident, urgent

Type of: duty, modality, mode, mood, obligation, responsibility, verb

Antonym: beseeching

Encyclopedia: Imperative