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What is the difference between essential and necessary?

essential | necessary |

Necessary is a antonym of essential.



As adjectives the difference between essential and necessary

is that essential is necessary while necessary is needed, required.

As nouns the difference between essential and necessary

is that essential is a necessary ingredient while necessary is bathroom, toilet, loo.

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.
  • necessary

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • needed, required
  • * Shakespeare
  • 'Tis necessary he should die.
  • * Tillotson
  • A certain kind of temper is necessary to the pleasure and quiet of our minds.
  • Such as must be; not to be avoided; inevitable.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Death, a necessary end, / Will come when it will come.
  • Acting from necessity or compulsion; involuntary.
  • Whether man is a necessary or a free agent is a question much discussed.

    Synonyms

    * (needed) See also * (such as must be) inevitable, natural

    Antonyms

    * (needed) unnecessary * (such as must be) evitable, incidental, impossible

    Derived terms

    * necessarily * necessary condition

    Noun

    (necessaries)
  • (archaic, British) bathroom, toilet, loo
  • Statistics

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