imperatives
Orders requiring compliance
Imperatives are things that must be done—urgent demands or absolute necessities: Economic imperatives forced the company to restructure.
In grammar, an imperative is a command form of a verb: "Stop" and "Listen carefully" are imperatives.
The adjective imperative means urgently important: It's imperative that we act now.
Moral imperatives are ethical obligations felt as binding duties.
Instructions to obey
- directivesFormal commands or instructions
- mandatesAuthoritative commands or requirements
- decreesOfficial orders with force
- edictsAuthoritative public commands
dictates · injunctions · demands · fiats · proclamations · prescriptions · ultimatums · behests
Required moral task
- ethicsStudy of right conduct
- obligationRequired task or commitment
- conscienceInternal moral sense
- principleFundamental truth or standard
categorical · Kantian · ought · should · responsibility · virtue · right · wrong
Indispensable requirement
- priorityStatus of greater importance
- obligationRequired task or commitment
- mustObligatory requirement
- essentialFundamentally necessary
critical · pressing · urgent · compulsory · non-negotiable · exigency · requirement · demand
Action-expressing word
- moodPrevailing emotional condition
- commandAuthoritative instruction given
- conjugationVerb form variation system
- syntaxRules for arranging words
tense · sentence · clause · subject · predicate · inflection · morphology · subjunctive
orders
Instructions to obey
- directivesFormal commands or instructions
- mandatesAuthoritative commands or requirements
- decreesOfficial orders with force
edicts · dictates · injunctions · demands · fiats · proclamations · prescriptions · ultimatums · behests · exhortations
duty
Required moral task
- ethicsStudy of right conduct
- obligationRequired task or commitment
- conscienceInternal moral sense
principle · categorical · Kantian · ought · should · responsibility · virtue · right · wrong · moral law
necessity
Indispensable requirement
- priorityStatus of greater importance
- obligationRequired task or commitment
- mustObligatory requirement
essential · critical · pressing · urgent · compulsory · non-negotiable · exigency · requirement · demand · prerequisite
verb
Action-expressing word
- moodPrevailing emotional condition
- commandAuthoritative instruction given
- conjugationVerb form variation system
syntax · tense · sentence · clause · subject · predicate · inflection · morphology · subjunctive · indicative
- English grammarnouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns
- fundamentalsbasics, fundamentals, essentials, foundation, ABCs
- normsnorm, norms, standard, social norms, rule
- requirementsrequirement, requirements, prerequisite, requisite, requisites
- ruleslaw, rule, guideline, bylaw, standard
- grammardeclension, pronouns, adjectives, conjugation, nouns
imperativesoptions
Available courses of action
choices · luxuries · nice-to-haves · preferences · electives
imperativesindicatives
Mood for factual assertions
declaratives · interrogatives · subjunctives · statements · conditionals
imperativessuggestions
Proposed ideas or advice
requests · recommendations · proposals · entreaties · pleas
- moral imperativeBinding ethical command
- biological imperativeGenetically encoded behavioral necessity
- categorical imperativeUnconditional ethical obligation