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.

Ideal vs Essential - What's the difference?

ideal | essential |

As adjectives the difference between ideal and essential

is that ideal is optimal; being the best possibility while essential is necessary.

As nouns the difference between ideal and essential

is that ideal is (a perfect standard of beauty, intellect etc.)A perfect standard of beauty, intellect etc., or a standard of excellence to aim at while essential is a necessary ingredient.

As a proper noun Ideal

is a city in Georgia, USA.

ideal

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Optimal; being the best possibility.
  • Perfect, flawless, having no defects.
  • * Rambler
    • There will always be a wide interval between practical and ideal excellence.
  • Pertaining to ideas, or to a given idea.
  • Existing only in the mind; conceptual, imaginary.
  • * 1796 , Matthew Lewis, The Monk , Folio Society 1985, p. 256:
    • The idea of ghosts is ridiculous in the extreme; and if you continue to be swayed by ideal terrors —
  • * 1818 , , [[s:Frankenstein/Chapter 4, Chapter 4],
    • Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.
  • Teaching or relating to the doctrine of idealism.
    • the ideal theory or philosophy
  • (mathematics) Not actually present, but considered as present when limits at infinity are included.
    • ideal point
    An ideal triangle in the hyperbolic disk is one bounded by three geodesics that meet precisely on the circle.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Related terms

    * ideality * idealless * ideally * idealism * idealistic * idealize

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A perfect standard of beauty, intellect etc., or a standard of excellence to aim at.
    • Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny -
  • (mathematics, order theory) A non-empty]] lower set (of a partially ordered set) which is [[closure, closed under binary suprema (a.k.a. joins).[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_prime_ideal_theorem#Prime_ideal_theorems]
    • If (1) the empty set were called a "small" set, and (2) any subset of a "small" set were also a "small" set, and (3) the union of any pair of "small" sets were also a "small" set, then the set of all "small" sets would form an ideal .
  • (for example, algebra) A subring closed under multiplication by its containing ring.
    • Let \mathbb{Z} be the ring of integers and let 2\mathbb{Z} be its ideal of even integers. Then the quotient ring \mathbb{Z} / 2\mathbb{Z} is a Boolean ring.
    The product of two ideals \mathfrak{a} and \mathfrak{b} is an ideal \mathfrak{a b} which is a subset of the intersection of \mathfrak{a} and \mathfrak{b}. This should help to understand why maximal ideals' are prime ' ideals . Likewise, the union of \mathfrak{a} and \mathfrak{b} is a subset of \mathfrak{a + b}.

    Antonyms

    * (order theory) filter

    Derived terms

    * left ideal * right ideal * two-sided ideal * principal ideal

    External links

    * (wikipedia)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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 ----