imperative.

1. Extremely important or urgent; necessary to do or address without delay.

2. Relating to the grammatical mood used to express commands, instructions, or requests.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• imperative to act
• imperative that
• an imperative need
• imperative mood
• imperative sentence
• imperative verb

On the page

It became imperative to find the missing key before the tide reached the cellar.

“Leave the room now” is an imperative sentence.

Usage notes

Often appears in “it is imperative to” or “it is imperative that”; the word stresses necessity, not merely preference. Sense 2: This grammatical sense concerns sentence form; it does not mean that the instruction is necessarily urgent or important.