Definition of Essential

1. Noun. Anything indispensable. "A place where the requisites of water fuel and fodder can be obtained"

Exact synonyms: Necessary, Necessity, Requirement, Requisite
Generic synonyms: Thing
Specialized synonyms: Desideratum, Must, Need, Want
Antonyms: Inessential
Derivative terms: Necessary, Necessitate, Necessitous, Require, Requisite

2. Adjective. Absolutely necessary; vitally necessary. "An indispensable worker"
Exact synonyms: Indispensable
Similar to: Necessary
Derivative terms: Essentialness, Indispensability, Indispensableness

3. Adjective. Basic and fundamental. "The essential feature"

4. Adjective. Of the greatest importance. "In chess cool nerves are of the essence"

5. Adjective. Being or relating to or containing the essence of a plant etc. "Essential oil"
Partainyms: Essence
Derivative terms: Essence, Essentialness

6. Adjective. Defining rights and duties as opposed to giving the rules by which rights and duties are established. "Substantive law"
Exact synonyms: Substantive
Category relationships: Jurisprudence, Law
Derivative terms: Essentialness
Antonyms: Adjective

Definition of Essential

1. a. Belonging to the essence, or that which makes an object, or class of objects, what it is.

2. n. Existence; being.

Definition of Essential

1. Adjective. Necessary. ¹

2. Adjective. Very important; of high importance. ¹

3. Adjective. Being in the basic form; showing its essence. ¹

4. Adjective. (context: of a lamination of a 3-manifold) 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. ¹

5. Adjective. (medicine) Idiopathic. ¹

6. Noun. A necessary ingredient. ¹

7. Noun. A fundamental ingredient. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Essential

1. [n -S]

Medical Definition of Essential

1. 1. Belonging to the essence, or that which makes an object, or class of objects, what it is. "Majestic as the voice sometimes became, there was forever in it an essential character of plaintiveness." (Hawthorne) 2. Hence, really existing; existent. "Is it true, that thou art but a a name, And no essential thing?" (Webster (1623)) 3. Important in the highest degree; indispensable to the attainment of an object; indispensably necessary. "Judgment's more essential to a general Than courage." (Denham) "How to live? that is the essential question for us." (H. Spencer) 4. Containing the essence or characteristic portion of a substance, as of a plant; highly rectified; pure; hence, unmixed; as, an essential oil. "Mine own essential horror." 5. Necessary; indispensable; said of those tones which constitute a chord, in distinction from ornamental or passing tones. 6. Idiopathic; independent of other diseases. Essential character, a class of volatile oils, extracted from plants, fruits, or flowers, having each its characteristic odour, and hot burning taste. They are used in essences, perfumery, etc, and include many varieties of compounds; as lemon oil is a terpene, oil of bitter almonds an aldehyde, oil of wintergreen an ethereal salt, etc.; called also volatile oils in distinction from the fixed or nonvolatile. Origin: Cf. F. Essentiel. See Essence. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Essential

essayings
essayish
essayist
essayistic
essayists
essaylike
essays
esse
essence
essence of rose
essenced
essenceless
essences
essene
esseneite
essential (current term)
essential albuminuria
essential amino acid
essential amino acids
essential anaemia
essential anisocoria
essential bradycardia
essential condition
essential dysmenorrhoea
essential fatty acid
essential fever
essential food factors
essential gene
essential hypertension
essential listening

Literary usage of Essential

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke (1894)
"So that if it be asked, whether it be essential to me or any other particular ... I say, no; no more than it is essential to this white thing I write on to ..."

2. Journal of the American Chemical Society by American Chemical Society (1900)
"cuts illustrating the conditions of production of some of the essential oils. ... The work of Mr. Parry on " The Chemistry of essential Oils and Artificial ..."

3. The Essence of Christianity by Ludwig Feuerbach (1881)
"But what is this essential difference between man and the brute ? The most simple, general, and also the most popular answer to this question ..."

4. Proceedings by Philadelphia County Medical Society (1896)
"essential PAROXYSMAL TACHYCARDIA—REPORT OF FOUR CASES. ... By essential paroxysmal tachycardia is understood a disorder characterized by the occurrence of ..."

5. Monographic Medicine by William Robie Patten Emerson, Guido Guerrini, William Brown, Wendell Christopher Phillips, John Whitridge Williams, John Appleton Swett, Hans Günther, Mario Mariotti, Hugh Grant Rowell (1916)
"The author has never in practice seen a case of secondary anemia develop the pernicious or essential disease. References Bierfreund. Arch. f. klin. ..."

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