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essential - 20 thesaurus results
| Main Entry: | essential |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | necessity, basic |
| Synonyms: | ABCs, bottom line*, brass tacks*, condition, element, essence, fire and ice, fundamental, groceries*, guts*, heart, meat and potatoes*, must, name of the game*, nitty-gritty*, nuts and bolts*, part and parcel, precondition, prerequisite, principle, quintessence, requirement, requisite, rudiment, sine qua non, stuff, substance, vital part, where one's at |
| Notes: | the words crucial, essential, and vital cannot be qualified (cannot be more or less...) |
| Antonyms: | accessory, auxiliary, nonessential, subsidiary, throwaway, trivia |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | essential |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important, vital |
| Synonyms: | capital, cardinal, chief, crucial, foremost, fundamental, imperative, indispensable, leading, main, necessary, needed, prerequisite, principal, required, requisite, wanted, constitutive, necessitous, needful, right-hand |
| Antonyms: | accessory, auxiliary, minor, nonessential, secondary, subsidiary, unimportant, inessential |
| Main Entry: | essential |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | basic, fundamental |
| Synonyms: | absolute, basal, cardinal, cold, complete, congenital, constitutional, deep-seated, elemental, elementary, ideal, inborn, inbred, inherent, innate, intrinsic, key, main, material, meat and potatoes*, name of the game*, nitty-gritty*, nub, perfect, primary, prime, primitive, principal, quintessential, underlying, connate, substratal |
| Antonyms: | atypical, minor, secondary |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | basic |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | elementary, fundamental |
| Synonyms: | basal, capital, central, chief, elemental, essential, indispensable, inherent, intrinsic, key, main, necessary, primary, primitive, principal, radical, underlying, vital, substratal |
| Antonyms: | additional, extra, nonessential, outside, peripheral, secondary, inessential |
| Main Entry: | born |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | innate |
| Synonyms: | built-in, congenital, constitutional, deep-seated, essential, inborn, inbred, inherent, intrinsic, natural, ingenerate |
| Main Entry: | built-in |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | included |
| Synonyms: | congenital, constitutional, deep-seated, essential, implicit, inborn, inbred, incorporated, ingrained, inherent, innate, inseparable, integral, part and parcel, in-built, indwelling |
| Antonyms: | extra, added, not included |
| Main Entry: | cardinal |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important, key |
| Synonyms: | basal, basic, central, chief, essential, first, foremost, fundamental, highest, indispensable, leading, main, overriding, paramount, pivotal, preeminent, primary, prime, principal, ruling, vital, constitutive, greatest, overruling |
| Antonyms: | insignificant, minor, negligible, secondary, unimportant, inessential |
| Main Entry: | central |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | main, principal; in the middle |
| Synonyms: | basic, cardinal, center, chief, dominant, equidistant, essential, focal, foremost, fundamental, important, inmost, inner, interior, intermediate, key, leading, master, mean, median, mid, middle, outstanding, overriding, paramount, pivotal, predominant, primary, prime, radical, ruling, salient, significant, axial, centric, centroidal, middlemost, midmost, midway, nuclear, omphalic, umbilical |
| Antonyms: | exterior, minor, outside, peripheral, secondary |
| Main Entry: | characteristic |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | typical; distinguishing |
| Synonyms: | appropriate, diagnostic, discriminating, distinctive, distinguishing, especial, essential, exclusive, fixed, idiosyncratic, inborn, inbred, indicative, individual, ingrained, inherent, innate, local, marked, native, normal, original, particular, peculiar, personal, private, proper, regular, representative, singular, special, specific, symbolic, symptomatic, unique, differentiating, discriminative, emblematic, individualistic, individualizing |
| Antonyms: | abnormal, untypical, uncharacteristic |
| Main Entry: | characteristic |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | typical feature, trait |
| Synonyms: | affection, aspect, attribute, badge, bag, bearing, bent, caliber, cast, complexion, component, disposition, distinction, earmark, endowment, essence, essential, faculty, flavor, frame, idiosyncrasy, inclination, individuality, mannerism, mark, mood, nature, originality, peculiarity, personality, point, property, quality, specialty, streak, stripe, style, symptom, temperament, tendency, thing, tinge, tone, trademark, turn, virtue, differentia, lineament, particularity, singularity, thumbprint |
| Antonyms: | abnormality |
| Main Entry: | constituent |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | element |
| Synonyms: | board, component, division, essential, factor, fraction, ingredient, part, part and parcel, portion, principle, unit, fixins, makings, plug-in |
| Antonyms: | whole |
| Main Entry: | cornerstone |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | vital element |
| Synonyms: | anchor, base, essential, foundation, keystone, mainstay, pillar, key element, linchpin, main ingredient, mainspring |
| Main Entry: | crucial |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | critical, important |
| Synonyms: | acute, central, clamorous, compelling, deciding, decisive, desperate, dire, essential, imperative, insistent, momentous, necessary, pivotal, pressing, searching, showdown*, touchy, urgent, vital, climacteric, climatic, hanging by thread, high-priority, on thin ice, touch and go |
| Antonyms: | trivial, uncritical, unimportant, inessential |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | elementary |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | simple, basic |
| Synonyms: | ABCs, abecedarian, basal, beginning, child's play, clear, duck soup*, easy, elemental, essential, facile, foundational, fundamental, initial, introductory, meat and potatoes*, original, plain, prefatory, preliminary, primary, primitive, primo, rudimentary, simplest, simplex, simplified, straightforward, substratal, uncomplex, uncomplicated, underlying |
| Antonyms: | abstruse, advanced, complex, complicated, compound, difficult, hard, intricate, involved, secondary |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | fundamental |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | basic, important |
| Synonyms: | axiomatic, basal, bottom, cardinal, central, constitutional, crucial, elemental, elementary, essential, first, indispensable, integral, intrinsic, key, major, necessary, organic, original, paramount, primary, prime, primitive, primordial, principal, radical, requisite, rudimentary, significant, structural, supporting, theoretical, underlying, vital, axiological, bottom-line, constitutive, foundational, grass-roots, meat-and-potatoes, substratal, substrative, sustaining, underived |
| Antonyms: | additional, advanced, auxiliary, extra, minor, secondary, subordinate, trivial, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | helpful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | beneficial, beneficent |
| Synonyms: | accessible, accommodating, advantageous, applicable, benevolent, conducive, considerate, constructive, convenient, cooperative, crucial, effectual, efficacious, essential, favorable, fortunate, friendly, important, improving, instrumental, invaluable, kind, neighborly, operative, practical, pragmatic, productive, profitable, serviceable, significant, suitable, sympathetic, timely, usable, useful, utilitarian, valuable, bettering, caring, contributive, good for, serendipitous, supportive, symbiotic |
| Antonyms: | disadvantageous, harmful, hurtful, injurious, useless, worthless, unconstructive, unhelpful |
| Main Entry: | inborn/inbred |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | coming from birth; natural |
| Synonyms: | congenital, constitutional, deep-seated, essential, hereditary, inbred, indigenous, ingrained, inherent, inherited, innate, instinctive, intrinsic, intuitive, native, connate, connatural, indwelling, ingenerate, unacquired |
| Antonyms: | acquired, earned |
| Main Entry: | indispensable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | necessary |
| Synonyms: | basal, basic, cardinal, crucial, essential, fundamental, imperative, key, needed, prerequisite, primary, required, requisite, vital, necessitous, needful |
| Antonyms: | dispensable, needless, nonessential, redundant, superfluous, unnecessary |
| Main Entry: | inherent |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | basic, hereditary |
| Synonyms: | built-in, characteristic, congenital, constitutional, deep-rooted, deep-seated, distinctive, elementary, essential, fixed, fundamental, genetic, immanent, implicit, inborn, inbred, indigenous, indispensable, individual, ingrained, inherited, innate, inner, instinctive, integral, integrated, internal, intimate, intrinsic, inward, latent, native, natural, original, part and parcel, resident, subjective, connate, in the grain, inbuilt, indwelling, running in the family, unalienable |
| Antonyms: | acquired, external, extrinsic, incidental, learned, added |
| Main Entry: | innate |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | inherited, native |
| Synonyms: | congenital, constitutional, deep-seated, elemental, essential, hereditary, inborn, inbred, indigenous, ingrained, inherent, instinctive, intrinsic, intuitive, natural, normal, regular, standard, typical, connate, connatural, unacquired |
| Antonyms: | acquired, extrinsic, learned |
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
