Semantics has been an issue in Machine Translation research from its inception. The basic assumption is that semantics is necessary for any MT system, with some uncertainty about the extent necessary for that semantics. This paper examines the general issue of MT semantics in an attempt to put the questions in perspective. From a practical standpoint semantics is not necessary for an MT system, although highly desirable. Further, something less than a full-blown semantics can contribute to an MT system.