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I'm looking for a word that means that something must occur with another thing. Almost as though it is mutually inclusive, however it must happen with another. Anyone know?

Sample sentence:

Tomatoes in a salad are not ______, salads don't have to have tomatoes.

I considered mutually inclusive, but mutually inclusive does not mean that it necessarily has to be together and that's what I'm looking to say. I'm writing a speech for a debate about immigration and I'm attempting to say that immigration from our Southern borders and crime are not together all the time and that Sanctuary cities don't facilitate drug problems and prostitution because they do not question immigration status. Like salads and tomatoes don't necessarily go hand in hand.

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  • Why exactly does mutually inclusive not work in that situation? Are you trying to find a single word/phrase that says something is neither mutually inclusive nor mutually exclusive? Could you say "not required"?
    – Hank
    Feb 16, 2017 at 19:11
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    Looks like "required" would fit perfectly well in that example and meets your definition.
    – Hellion
    Feb 16, 2017 at 19:15
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    I thought about mutually inclusive, but mutually inclusive does not mean that it necessarily has to be together and that's what I'm looking to say. I'm writing a speech for a debate about immigration and I'm attempting to say that immigration from our Southern borders and crime are not together all the time and that Sanctuary cities don't facilitate drug problems and prostitution because they do not question immigration status. Like salads and tomatoes don't necessarily go hand in hand.
    – Elizabeth M
    Feb 16, 2017 at 19:16
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    uh, "necessary"?
    – user175542
    Feb 16, 2017 at 20:23
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    required, mandatory, necessary, obligatory. Use a thesaurus...
    – Drew
    Feb 16, 2017 at 20:53

8 Answers 8

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You could use requisite in the following way.

Tomatoes are not requisite for a proper salad.

The adjective definition is:

required or necessary for a particular purpose, position, etc.; indispensable:

with the noun form referencing that:

something requisite; a necessary quality, thing, etc.

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Tomatoes are not vital/essential/indispensable in a salad; salads don't have to have tomatoes.

ODO:

vital ADJECTIVE

1 Absolutely necessary or important; essential.

‘Each player assumes a specific role that is vital to the overall team framework.’

essential ADJECTIVE

1 Absolutely necessary; extremely important.

‘fiber is an essential ingredient’

indispensable ADJECTIVE

Absolutely necessary.

‘The horse is an indispensable character to most stories of Chinese warriors.’

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Try concomitant.

Defined by Merriam Webster as:

something that accompanies or is collaterally connected with something else

Also see below the definition by Cambridge dictionary.

something that happens with something else and is connected with it

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  • A perfectly good word, but one that will be unclear to many readers.
    – Mike Taverne
    Feb 21, 2017 at 5:30
  • ^^ thought this word when I read title to question
    – timpone
    Jan 3, 2021 at 17:06
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You have the answer in your question!

Immigration from our Southern borders and crime do not necessarily go together.

Sanctuary cities don't necessarily facilitate drug problems and prostitution just because they do not question immigration status.

Forget about the sample sentence with the tomatoes. Several words, for example, obligatory, could go in the blank, but they wouldn't help you with your real concern.

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I'm looking for a word that means “something must occur with another thing

It depends on the viewpoint and whether there are dependencies at work. Your title, sample sentence, and context are all different in these respects. Salads don't depend on tomatoes - tomato isn't obligatory.

In you immigration example, It appears you are trying to argue that crime and immigrants don't go hand in hand. Unlike the salad, you are looking at the situation from an outside perspective.

If you want the analogy to succeed, I think you need to make it more parallel to the actual situation so as not to open yourself up to counterarguments in the debate.

obligatory

1: binding in law or conscience

"Obligatory." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.

go hand in hand

if two things go hand in hand, they exist together and are connected with each other (often + with ) Crime usually goes hand in hand with poor economic conditions.

go hand in hand. (n.d.) Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. (2006). Retrieved February 17 2017 from http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/go+hand+in+hand

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Prerequisite is what you're looking for!

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  • Please add the definition to your answer.
    – niamulbengali
    Jan 3, 2021 at 17:57
  • Preprequisite implies a temporal causality.
    – polarise
    Feb 24, 2021 at 9:35
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The phrase mutually inclusive would seem as though it should mean this, as opposed to mutually exclusive (which categorically means cannot occur together). However, it appears that mutually inclusive does not bear the weight of necessity and is I've seen definitions which specify that they can both occur.

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I think the phrase you're looking for is 'mutually assured.'

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    – Community Bot
    Oct 14, 2021 at 19:04

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