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essential
[ uh-sen-shuhl ]
adjective
- absolutely necessary; indispensable:
Discipline is essential in an army.
Synonyms: vital, intrinsic, inherent, basic, fundamental
- pertaining to or constituting the essence of a thing.
Antonyms: accidental, extrinsic, extraneous, incidental
- noting or containing an essence of a plant, drug, etc.
- being such by its very nature or in the highest sense; natural; spontaneous:
essential happiness.
- Mathematics.
- (of a singularity of a function of a complex variable) noting that the Laurent series at the point has an infinite number of terms with negative powers.
- (of a discontinuity) noting that the function is discontinuous and has no limit at the point. Compare removable ( def 2 ).
noun
- a basic, indispensable, or necessary element; chief point:
Concentrate on essentials rather than details.
essential
/ ɪˈsɛnʃəl; ɪˌsɛnʃɪˈælɪtɪ /
adjective
- vitally important; absolutely necessary
- basic; fundamental
the essential feature
- completely realized; absolute; perfect
essential beauty
- biochem (of an amino acid or a fatty acid) necessary for the normal growth of an organism but not synthesized by the organism and therefore required in the diet
- derived from or relating to an extract of a plant, drug, etc
an essential oil
- logic (of a property) guaranteed by the identity of the subject; necessary. Thus, if having the atomic number 79 is an essential property of gold, nothing can be gold unless it has that atomic number
- music denoting or relating to a note that belongs to the fundamental harmony of a chord or piece
- pathol (of a disease) having no obvious external cause
essential hypertension
- geology (of a mineral constituent of a rock) necessary for defining the classification of a rock. Its absence alters the rock's name and classification
noun
- something fundamental or indispensable
a sharp eye is an essential for a printer
- music an essential note
Derived Forms
- essentiality, noun
Other Words From
- es·sential·ly adverb
- es·sential·ness noun
- prees·sential noun adjective
- prees·sential·ly adverb
- quasi-es·sential adjective
- quasi-es·sential·ly adverb
- subes·sential adjective
- subes·sential·ly adverb
- subes·sential·ness noun
Word History and Origins
Origin of essential1
Synonym Study
Example Sentences
But Winning Marriage will be essential for the historian who, someday, tries to tell the full story.
Law is essential to freedom because it safeguards citizens against misconduct and abuse.
Dana Rubenstein of The New York Observer wrote that “essential to the experience was segregation.”
Young Living traffics in essential oils designed to help relax and rejuvenate.
Claiming to be useful against Ebola, autism, and cancer, Young Living Essential Oils came under fire from the FDA.
Water itself is of course essential to the growth of every plant, but the benefits of Irrigation reach far beyond this.
As a rule, however, persistent glycosuria is diagnostic of diabetes mellitus, of which disease it is the essential symptom.
Such are most probably given by the essential oils, which vary in amount in different species of the plant.
But the essential problem of to-day is to know how far we are to depart from its principles.
In its essential nature socialism is nothing but a proposal for certain kinds of economic reform.
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