essential element

noun

1. biochem any chemical element required by an organism for healthy growth. It may be required in large amounts (macronutrient) or in very small amounts (trace element) See also macronutrient trace element

Example Sentences

Or, as Phillips has tactfully described it, “a movie where music is an essential element.”

From Los Angeles Times

Instead, it doubled down on the program, asserting that it would be an essential element of any future nuclear deterrent and must continue, even if the funding for other defense programs has to be cut to make way for it.

From Salon

“It was about stripping people of their humanity. It was an essential element of the dehumanization. Isolation, transport, theft and murder: Those are all interlinked parts of the Holocaust.”

From New York Times

"But now, this new result reveals the clear chemical signature of substantial amounts of phosphorus salts inside icy particles ejected into space by the small moon's plume. It's the first time this essential element has been discovered in an ocean beyond Earth."

From Salon

Coal was an essential element in America’s rise as an industrial superpower.

From Seattle Times