δέονται (deontai)

δέονται is an Ancient Greek form of δέω, meaning “lack, need; (mid.) need, ask for”. It is the 3rd person plural present middle/passive indicative.

It can also be a form of δέομαι, “need, ask for, beg (gen.)”.

Found 187 times in the Ancient Greek texts on Socratos.

Where it is used

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.32.1: … ας παρὰ τοὺς πέλας ἐπικουρίας, ὥσπερ καὶ ἡμεῖς νῦν, δεησομένους ἀναδιδάξαι πρῶτον, μάλιστα μὲν ὡς καὶ ξύμφορα δέονται, εἰ δὲ μή, ὅτι γε οὐκ ἐπιζήμια, ἔπειτα δὲ ὡς καὶ τὴν χάριν βέβαιον ἕξουσιν· εἰ δὲ τούτων μηδὲν σαφὲς καταστήσ …

Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.6.21: ἀλλʼ ἔχει μέν, ἔφη ὁ Σωκράτης, ποικίλως πως ταῦτα, ὦ Κριτόβουλε. φύσει γὰρ ἔχουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι τὰ μὲν φιλικά· δέονταί τε γὰρ ἀλλήλων καὶ ἐλεοῦσι καὶ συνεργοῦντες ὠφελοῦσι καὶ τοῦτο συνιέντες χάριν ἔχουσιν ἀλλήλοις· τὰ δὲ πολεμι …

All forms of δέω (conjugation table)

Source: Socratos (socratos.org), a free reader for Ancient Greek and Latin. Grammar from the Perseus Treebank and Morpheus; dictionary entries from Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA). Counts are from the texts on Socratos.