What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Essential vs Exclusive - What's the difference?

essential | exclusive |

As adjectives the difference between essential and exclusive

is that essential is necessary while exclusive is (literally) excluding items or members that do not meet certain conditions.

As nouns the difference between essential and exclusive

is that essential is a necessary ingredient while exclusive is information (or an artefact) that is granted or obtained exclusively.

essential

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • 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) 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. […]}}
  • Being in the basic form; showing its essence.
  • Don’t mind him being grumpy. That’s the essential Fred.
  • Really existing; existent.
  • * Webster (1623)
  • Is it true, that thou art but a name, / And no essential thing?
  • 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.
  • Synonyms

    * indispensable, crucial, substantive * See also

    Antonyms

    * inessential, unessential, accidental, nonessential, unneeded, adscititious, unimportant, accessorial, unnecessary, incidental

    Derived terms

    * essential amino acid * essential fatty acid * essential listening * essential nutrient * essential oil * essentially * essentialness * quintessential

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A necessary ingredient.
  • A fundamental ingredient.
  • exclusive

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (literally) Excluding items or members that do not meet certain conditions.
  • (figuratively) Referring to a membership organisation, service or product: of high quality and/or reknown, for superior members only. A snobbish usage, suggesting that members who do not meet requirements, which may be financial, of celebrity, religion, skin colour etc., are excluded.
  • Exclusive''' clubs tend to serve ' exclusive brands of food and drinks, in the same exorbitant price range, such as the 'finest' French châteaux.
  • exclusionary
  • whole, undivided, entire
  • ''The teacher's pet commands the teacher's exclusive attention.

    Antonyms

    * inclusive * non-exclusive

    Derived terms

    * exclusively * exclusiveness * exclusive or * exclusive right * exclusivity * mutually exclusive

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Information (or an artefact) that is granted or obtained exclusively.
  • ''The editor agreed to keep a lid on a potentially distastrous political scoop in exchange for an exclusive of a happier nature
  • (grammar) A word or phrase that restricts something, such as only'', ''solely'', or ''simply .