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say it: eh-SEN-shuhl
essential is an adjective and noun meaning "absolutely necessary; vitally necessary". It carries 6 recorded senses.
absolutely necessary; vitally necessary
“essential tools and materials”
“funds essential to the completion of the project”
“an indispensable worker”
of the greatest importance
“the all-important subject of disarmament”
“crucial information”
“in chess cool nerves are of the essence”
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”
law
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”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for essential come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.