sine qua non
An essential or indispensable element, condition, or ingredientAn essential or indispensable element, condition, or ingredient.
» A driving licence is a sine qua non here.
Ein Führerschein ist hier eine Conditio sine qua non. — Pfirsichbaeumchen
sundown · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 sensesAn essential or indispensable element, condition, or ingredient.
Near-synonyms: dealbreaker, necessary condition
absolute Notwendigkeit, notwendige Bedingung, unerlässliche Voraussetzung
обяза́тельное усло́виеobjazátelʹnoje uslóvije, необходи́мое усло́вие n)
- a prerequisite
Examples
2 sentencesA driving licence is a sine qua non here.
deEin Führerschein ist hier eine Conditio sine qua non. — Pfirsichbaeumchen
Grammar and usage are the sine qua non of language teaching and learning.
Translations
8 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
Borrowed from Latin [condiciō] sine quā nōn (“[condition] without which not”), an expressiBorrowed from Latin [condiciō] sine quā nōn (“[condition] without which not”), an expression which originated in the works of Boethius as a translation of some Aristotelian expression (perhaps Ancient Greek οὗ οὐκ ἄνευ (hoû ouk áneu); compare also Modern Greek εκ των ων ουκ άνευ (ek ton on ouk ánef) / Katharevousa ἐκ τῶν ὧν οὐκ ἄνευ (ek tón ón ouk ánef)), and was later popularized by scholastics.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: sine qua nons / sine quibus nonSynonyms
5 synonyms- a prerequisite:essential condition
Lessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Plural nouns — Because its plural is irregular
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.