3

I am looking for a word to describe a person who is good at his job and therefore everybody needs him.

Is it 'needed' or 'needful'? What about 'indispensable'?

Improve this question
4
  • If you mean "and therefore everybody needs his help", then I would question how good the person is at his job. He might be doing his job in a way that prevents (or discourages) other people from learning how to do their jobs.
    – Jasper
    Feb 20, 2016 at 18:38
  • Oops. I misspelled 'his' and 'him'. I am not very familiar with Indian English. What I meant is everybody needs him because if he quits, it would be very hard to find a person that does the job equally good.
    – Boykodev
    Feb 20, 2016 at 18:50
  • Sounds like me ...
    – Glorfindel ♦
    Feb 20, 2016 at 21:21
  • 2
    Tip for all English language learners: The word is never needful.
    – Ben Jackson
    Feb 20, 2016 at 21:27

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6

Indispensable is a good choice.

His knowledge of human nature, inexhaustible energy, dauntless self-confidence and diplomatic finesse made him indispensable to Gustavus III. Source

Also, essential, crucial, vital, or key.

She is a crucial member of our team and would be difficult to replace.

None of these words are specific to a person who is good at their work - they can be used for anything that is very important. I've chosen the ones that I see most often in business communications - there are other synonyms for indispensable that would work as well.

We could probably narrow it down even more if you provided an example sentence to show how you would like to use this word. I asked my husband what words he would choose, and he said "under-paid", "over-qualified", and possibly "over-worked" (as a joke).

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .