essential : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: essential	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for essential
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
essential adj absolutely necessary; vitally necessary; "essential tools and materials"; "funds essential to the completion of the project"; "an indispensable worker" Synonym(s): essential, indispensable basic and fundamental; "the essential feature" Antonym(s): inessential, unessential of the greatest importance; "the all-important subject of disarmament"; "crucial information"; "in chess cool nerves are of the essence" Synonym(s): all-important(a), all important(p), crucial, essential, of the essence(p) being or relating to or containing the essence of a plant etc; "essential oil" defining rights and duties as opposed to giving the rules by which rights and duties are established; "substantive law" Synonym(s): substantive, essential Antonym(s): adjective, procedural 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" Synonym(s): necessity, essential, requirement, requisite, necessary Antonym(s): inessential, nonessential
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Essential \Essen"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. [bd]Mine own essential horror.[b8] --Ford.