Sample Sentences for
essential
(editor-reviewed)

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  • •
    Trust is an essential part of any healthy relationship.
    essential = necessary
  • •
    I carry all the essential tools and materials I need in this toolbox.
    essential = necessary or most important
  • •
    Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the Language of the World.  (source)
    essential = necessary
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  • •
    I also grabbed a few other essential items.  (source)
    essential = necessary
  • •
    You weren't hurting anyone, you were hurting only things! And since things really couldn't be hurt, since things felt nothing, and things don't scream or whimper, as this woman might begin to scream and cry out, there was nothing to tease your conscience later. You were simply cleaning up. Janitorial work, essentially.  (source)
    essentially = basically (relating to the basic nature of something)
  • •
    Silent and alone, he had remained in moody meditation on woman's ways, deeming as essentials of the whole sex the accidents of the single one of their number he had ever closely beheld.  (source)
    essentials = basic characteristics
  • •
    She understood now clearly what she had meant long ago when she said to Adele Ratignolle that she would give up the unessential, but she would never sacrifice herself for her children.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unessential means not and reverses the meaning of essential. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • •
    —because of course we wouldn't want soldiers to die just because they are missing such nonessentials as arms or legs.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "non-" in nonessentials means not and reverses the meaning of essentials. This is the same pattern you see in words like nonfat, nonfiction, and nonprofit.
  • •
    And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in inessential means not and reverses the meaning of essential. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
  • •
    I like to hear...' 'It seems to me you people make a lot of fuss about inessentials.'†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in inessentials means not and reverses the meaning of essentials. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
  • •
    "Well, you see," and here for lack of previous thought on this subject as well as lack of wit to grasp the essentiality of a suitable and plausible answer quickly, Clyde hesitated—as every one—first and foremost Belknap and Jephson—noted—and then went on: "Well, you see—it I had to go away, even for a short time as I thought I might, I decided that I might need whatever I had in a hurry."†  (source)
  • •
    We have quite removed from men's minds what that pestilent fellow Paul used to teach about food and other unessentials—namely, that the human without scruples should always give in to the human with scruples.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unessentials means not and reverses the meaning of essentials. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • •
    "The fourth essential attribute," the Chief Elder said, "is wisdom."  (source)
    essential = necessary
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