The Meaning of essential

• (a.) Belonging to the essence, or that which makes an object, or class of objects, what it is.
• (a.) Hence, really existing; existent.
• (a.) Important in the highest degree; indispensable to the attainment of an object; indispensably necessary.
• (a.) Containing the essence or characteristic portion of a substance, as of a plant; highly rectified; pure; hence, unmixed; as, an essential oil.
• (a.) Necessary; indispensable; -- said of those tones which constitute a chord, in distinction from ornamental or passing tones.
• (a.) Idiopathic; independent of other diseases.

Synonyms

necessity , requirement , requisite , necessary , indispensable , all-important , all important , crucial , of the essence , substantive

Antonyms

inessential , inessential , adjective

Rhymes

confidential , consequential , credential , deferential , differential , existential , experiential , exponential , henschel , hentschel , inconsequential , inferential , influential , jurisprudential , nonessential , nonresidential , potential , preferential , presidential , providential , prudential , quintessential , residential , reverential , sequential , tangential , torrential , vice-presidential