/ ˌɪndɪˈspensəbl; NAmE / adjective
indispensable (to sb/sth) | indispensable (for sth / for doing sth) too important to be without
SYN essential :
Cars have become an indispensable part of our lives.
She made herself indispensable to the department.
A good dictionary is indispensable for learning a foreign language.
OPP dispensable ➡ note at essential
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WORD ORIGIN
mid 16th cent. (in the sense not to be allowed or provided for by ecclesiastical dispensation ): from medieval Latin indispensabilis , from in- not + dispensabilis (from Latin dispensare continue to weigh out or disburse, from the verb dispendere , based on pendere weigh).