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Essential vs Hereditary - What's the difference?

essential | hereditary | Related terms |

Essential is a related term of hereditary.


As adjectives the difference between essential and hereditary

is that essential is necessary while hereditary is which is passed on as inheritance, by last will or intestate.

As nouns the difference between essential and hereditary

is that essential is a necessary ingredient while hereditary is a hereditary ruler; a hereditary peer in the house of lords.

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.

    • Related terms

    * essence ----

    hereditary

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • which is passed on as inheritance, by last will or intestate
  • (of a title, honor or right) legally granted to somebody's descendant after that person's death.
    • Duke is a hereditary title which was created in Norman times.
  • (of a person) holding a legally hereditary title or rank
    • hereditary rulers
  • (of a disease or trait) passed from a parent to offspring in the genes
    • ''Haemophilia is hereditary in his family.

    Derived terms

    * hereditariness * hereditarily * hereditary disease * hereditary peer

    Related terms

    * heredity * heritage * inherit, inheritance * heir, heiress

    Noun

    (hereditaries)
  • A hereditary ruler; a hereditary peer in the House of Lords.

    • See also

    * congenital