Definitions for essential
əˈsɛn ʃəles·sen·tial

Princeton's WordNet(3.38 / 8 votes)Rate this definition:

1. necessity, essential, requirement, requisite, necessary(adj)

   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, indispensable(adj)

   absolutely necessary; vitally necessary

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

3. essential(adj)

   basic and fundamental

   "the essential feature"

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

   of the greatest importance

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

5. essential(adj)

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

   "essential oil"

6. substantive, essential(adj)

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

   "substantive law"

Wiktionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. essential(Noun)

   A necessary ingredient.

2. essential(Noun)

   A fundamental ingredient.

3. essential(Adjective)

   Idiopathic.

4. essential(Adjective)

   Necessary.

5. essential(Adjective)

   Very important; of high importance.

6. essential(Adjective)

   Being in the basic form; showing its essence.

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

7. essential(Adjective)

   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.

Origin: From essentialis, from essentia.

Webster Dictionary(4.50 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Essential(adj)

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

2. Essential(adj)

   hence, really existing; existent

3. Essential(adj)

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

4. Essential(adj)

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

5. Essential(adj)

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

6. Essential(adj)

   idiopathic; independent of other diseases

Origin: [Cf. F. essentiel. See Essence.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Essential

   Essential is a 1991 collection of hits by The Divinyls.

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 ?

1. 

   Alex

   US English

   

   Daniel

   British

   

   Karen

   Australian

   

   Veena

   Indian

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. Vince Lombardi:

   Mental toughness is essential to success.

2. Mikhail Bakunin:

   The freedom of all is essential to my freedom.

3. Pierre Trudeau:

   The essential ingredient of politics is timing.

4. Debasish Mridha, M.D.:

   Success in life is a necessity and happiness is essential.

5. Stephanie Manson Brown:

   It is essential we try to understand breast implant illness.

Images & Illustrations of essential

Popularity rank by frequency of use