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more about essential
essential |
2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Essential \Es*sen"tial\, a. [Cf. F. essentiel. See {Essence}.] 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.'' --Ford. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: essential adj 1: absolutely necessary; vitally necessary; "essential tools and materials"; "funds essential to the completion of the project"; "an indispensable worker" [syn: {indispensable}] 2: basic and fundamental; "the essential feature" [ant: {inessential}] 3: of the greatest importance; "the all-important subject of disarmament"; "crucial information"; "in chess cool nerves are of the essence" [syn: {all-important(a)}, {all important(p)}, {crucial}, {of the essence(p)}] 4: being or relating to or containing the essence of a plant etc "essential oil" 5: (law) applying to essential legal principles and rules of right "substantive law" [syn: {substantive}] [ant: {adjective}] 6: absolutely required and not to be used up or sacrificed n : 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" [syn: {necessity}, {requirement}, {requisite}, {necessary}] [ant: {inessential}]
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