Compulsory vs Essential - What's the difference?
compulsory | essential |
Required; obligatory; mandatory.
* 1827 , A. D. Jr., Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal , A. and C. Black, page 212:
* 1996 , (Ugo Pagano), Democracy and Efficiency in the Economic Enterprise , page 73:
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)
, volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Having the power of compulsion; constraining.
Something that is compulsory or required.
* {{quote-news, year=2008, date=March 22, author=The Associated Press, title=French Victory in Ice Dance, work=New York Times
, passage=Delobel and Schoenfelder failed to win the free dance, but they had built a big lead in the compulsories and the original dance. }}
Necessary.
Very important; of high importance.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17
, author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot
, title=Money just makes the rich suffer
, volume=188, issue=23, page=19
, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
Being in the basic form; showing its essence.
Really existing; existent.
* Webster (1623)
Such that each complementary region is irreducible, the boundary of each complementary region is incompressible by disks and monogons in the complementary region, and no leaf is a sphere or a torus bounding a solid torus in the manifold.
(medicine) Idiopathic.
As adjectives the difference between compulsory and essential
is that compulsory is required; obligatory; mandatory while essential is necessary.As nouns the difference between compulsory and essential
is that compulsory is something that is compulsory or required while essential is a necessary ingredient.compulsory
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- They are entirely private concerns, established by individual teachers, and attendance upon them is no more compulsory than attendance on our dispensaries.
- Some might agree that membership in the firm is perhaps more compulsory than membership in a municipality, but balk at applying the analogy to the nation.
Finland spreads word on schools, passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.}}
Synonyms
* mandatoryAntonyms
* (required) optionalNoun
(compulsories)citation
essential
English
Adjective
(en adjective)citation, passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax. […]}}
- Don’t mind him being grumpy. That’s the essential Fred.
- Is it true, that thou art but a name, / And no essential thing?