Essential

The answer

MUST

4 letters. See every clue for this answer on the MUST answer page.

Used 7 times across 6 distinct years; most recently in 2025; first recorded in 1993. It appears in 3 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.

• VITAL (32 uses in xd)
• KEY (31 uses in xd)
• NEEDED (21 uses in xd)
• NEED (15 uses in xd)
• INNER (8 uses in xd)

Other clues for MUST

Every other clue in this collection answered by MUST, most used first.

• Has to - used 69 times, most recently in 2026
• Requirement - used 21 times, most recently in 2025
• Have to - used 15 times, most recently in 2022
• Necessity - used 13 times, most recently in 2026
• Is required to - used 12 times, most recently in 2025
• Need to - used 12 times, most recently in 2024
• Needs to - used 8 times, most recently in 2025
• Can't help but - used 7 times, most recently in 2014
• Has no choice - used 7 times, most recently in 2026
• Absolute requirement - used 6 times, most recently in 2016
• Essential thing - used 6 times, most recently in 2025
• Is compelled to - used 6 times, most recently in 2025
• Is obliged to - used 6 times, most recently in 2024
• Nonnegotiable item - used 6 times, most recently in 2010

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Essential part - PITH, used 28 times
• Essential point - CRUX, used 17 times
• Essential - NEED, used 15 times
• Some are essential - OILS, used 13 times
• Essential part - MEAT, used 12 times
• Essential part - CORE, used 11 times

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