What does essential mean?

Definitions for essential
əˈsɛn ʃəles·sen·tial

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word essential.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. necessity, essential, requirement, requisite, necessaryadjective

    anything indispensable

    "food and shelter are necessities of life"; "the essentials of the good life"; "allow farmers to buy their requirements under favorable conditions"; "a place where the requisites of water fuel and fodder can be obtained"

  2. essential, indispensableadjective

    absolutely necessary; vitally necessary

    "essential tools and materials"; "funds essential to the completion of the project"; "an indispensable worker"

  3. essentialadjective

    basic and fundamental

    "the essential feature"

  4. all-important(a), all important(p), crucial, essential, of the essence(p)adjective

    of the greatest importance

    "the all-important subject of disarmament"; "crucial information"; "in chess cool nerves are of the essence"

  5. essentialadjective

    being or relating to or containing the essence of a plant etc

    "essential oil"

  6. substantive, essentialadjective

    defining rights and duties as opposed to giving the rules by which rights and duties are established

    "substantive law"

Wiktionary

  1. essentialnoun

    A necessary ingredient.

  2. essentialnoun

    A fundamental ingredient.

  3. essentialadjective

    Idiopathic.

  4. essentialadjective

    Necessary.

  5. essentialadjective

    Very important; of high importance.

  6. essentialadjective

    Being in the basic form; showing its essence.

    Don't mind him being grumpy. That's the essential Fred.

  7. essentialadjective

    Such that each complementary region is irreducible, the boundary of each complementary region is incompressible by disks and monogons in the complementary region, and no leaf is a sphere or a torus bounding a solid torus in the manifold.

  8. Etymology: From essentialis, from essentia.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. ESSENTIALadjective

    Etymology: essentialis, Latin.

    The discipline of our church, although it be not an essential part of our religion, should not be rashly altered, as the very substance of our religion will be interested in it. Francis Bacon.

    From that original of doing good, that is essential to the infinite being of our Creator, we have an excellent copy transcribed. Thomas Sprat, Sermon.

    This power cannot be innate and essential to matter; and if it be not essential, it is consequently most manifest it could never supervene to it, unless impressed and infused into it by an immaterial and divine power. Richard Bentley, Sermons.

    A great minister puts you a case, and asks your opinion; but conceals an essential circumstance, upon which the whole weight of the matter turns. Jonathan Swift.

    And if each system in gradation roll,
    Alike essential to th’ amazing whole,
    The least confusion but in one, not all
    That system only, but the whole must fall. Alexander Pope.

    Judgment’s more essential to a general,
    Than courage. John Denham, Sophy.

    The juice of the seed is an essential oil or balm, designed by nature to preserve the seed from corruption. Arbuthnot.

  2. Essentialnoun

    His utmost ire to the height enrag’d,
    Will either quite consume us, or reduce
    To nothing this essential. John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. ii.

    The plague of sin has even altered his nature, and eaten into his very essentials. Robert South, Sermons.

ChatGPT

  1. essential

    Essential refers to something that is absolutely necessary or extremely important. It is a fundamental element or characteristic that is indispensable for the existence, operation or function of something or someone.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Essentialadjective

    belonging to the essence, or that which makes an object, or class of objects, what it is

  2. Essentialadjective

    hence, really existing; existent

  3. Essentialadjective

    important in the highest degree; indispensable to the attainment of an object; indispensably necessary

  4. Essentialadjective

    containing the essence or characteristic portion of a substance, as of a plant; highly rectified; pure; hence, unmixed; as, an essential oil

  5. Essentialadjective

    necessary; indispensable; -- said of those tones which constitute a chord, in distinction from ornamental or passing tones

  6. Essentialadjective

    idiopathic; independent of other diseases

  7. Etymology: [Cf. F. essentiel. See Essence.]

Wikidata

  1. Essential

    Essential is a 1991 collection of hits by The Divinyls.

Editors Contribution

  1. essential

    A fundamental form.

    The fundamental form of the system was created first and then the others mapped their systems into the whole.


    Submitted by MaryC on January 26, 2020  


  2. Essential

    A natural form.

    Wind is an essential form of the weather necessary to dry land, distribute seeds etc.


    Submitted by MaryC on January 26, 2020  

Suggested Resources

  1. Essential

    Essence vs Essential -- In this Grammar.com article you will learn the differences between the words Essence and Essential.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'essential' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #1147

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'essential' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2350

  3. Adjectives Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'essential' in Adjectives Frequency: #142

How to pronounce essential?

How to say essential in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of essential in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of essential in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of essential in a Sentence

  1. Atlantic Equities analyst James Cordwell:

    If the Chinese consumer is pulling back on spending then it seems to be either at the very high luxury end or maybe on some of the everyday non-essential items, i think the smartphone is increasingly viewed as an essential in Greater China. So, I don't see the economy weighing significantly on Apple growth over the next few quarters.

  2. John Stephenson:

    Until we see an indication that (global growth) is getting much worse, which would not be good for markets, or we see it getting much better, I think we're essential range bound.

  3. William Stolz:

    It seems like what they're trying to say is if this warehouse is dangerous, it's dangerous because of the workers -- not because we have hundreds of workers coming in, touching surfaces or because we are bringing on hundreds of new hires and continuing to ship non-essential stuff, at the same time, they've used some of their policies, and the ways they've applied them, to target certain people who have been involved in organizing or people who have had more disagreements with management.

  4. Larry Lessig:

    From the start, it was clear that getting into the Democratic debates was the essential step in this campaign. I may be known in tiny corners of the tubes of the Internets, but I am not well-known to the American public generally, our only chance to make this issue central to the 2016 presidential election was to be in those debates.

  5. Dean Baquet:

    Seizing the phone records of journalists profoundly undermines press freedom, it threatens to silence the sources we depend on to provide the public with essential information about what the government is doing.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

essential#1#2131#10000

Translations for essential

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

  • أساسيArabic
  • съществен, основен, необходим, важенBulgarian
  • essencialCatalan, Valencian
  • nezbytný, nevyhnutelný, nejpodstatnější, jádro, nezbytnost, esenciální, nepostradatelný, zásadní, podstata, esence, nejdůležitější, hlavníCzech
  • vigtigDanish
  • essenziell, notwendig, wesentlich, unentbehrlichGerman
  • στοιχειώδης, ουσιαστικός, ουσιώδηςGreek
  • esencaEsperanto
  • esencialSpanish
  • vajalik, olulineEstonian
  • tärkeä, olennainen, normaali, perusluonteinen, oleellinen, elintärkeä, välttämätön, tarpeellinenFinnish
  • essentiel, fondamental, indispensableFrench
  • deatamach, riatanachScottish Gaelic
  • pentingIndonesian
  • essenzialeItalian
  • חִיוּנִיHebrew
  • 肝要, 肝心, 不可欠Japanese
  • 본질적인Korean
  • essentialisLatin
  • essenzjaliMaltese
  • essensiellNorwegian
  • noodzakelijk, essentieel, belangrijk, onontbeerlijk, wezenlijk, echt, nodigDutch
  • essensiellNorwegian Nynorsk
  • viktigNorwegian
  • zasadniczy, niezbędny, podstawowyPolish
  • fundamental, essencialPortuguese
  • fundamental, esențială, importantă, esențial, de bază, important, necesarRomanian
  • базовый, фундаментальный, необходимый, существенный, важный, основнойRussian
  • bistven, nujenSlovene
  • essentiell, väsentligSwedish
  • அத்தியாவசியTamil
  • ముఖ్యమైనTelugu
  • สำคัญThai
  • істотнеUkrainian
  • יקערדיקYiddish
  • 必要Chinese

Get even more translations for essential »

Translation

Find a translation for the essential definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"essential." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/essential>.

Discuss these essential definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for essential? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Browse Definitions.net

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    identifying word or words by which someone or something is called and classified or distinguished from others
    A aculeate
    B articulate
    C extroversive
    D appellative

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for essential: