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Extra vs Essential - What's the difference?

extra | essential |

As adjectives the difference between extra and essential

is that extra is beyond what is due, usual, expected, or necessary; extraneous; additional; supernumerary while essential is necessary.

As nouns the difference between extra and essential

is that extra is (cricket) a run scored without the ball having hit the striker's bat - a wide, bye, leg bye or no ball; in australia referred to as a sundry while essential is a necessary ingredient.

As an adverb extra

is (informal) to an extraordinary degree.

extra

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Beyond what is due, usual, expected, or necessary; extraneous; additional; supernumerary.
    • extra''' work; '''extra pay
  • (dated) Extraordinarily good; superior.

    • Derived terms

    * extraness

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (informal) To an extraordinary degree.
    • That day he ran to school extra fast.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (cricket) A run scored without the ball having hit the striker's bat - a wide, bye, leg bye or no ball; in Australia referred to as a sundry.
  • An extra edition of a newspaper, which is printed outside of the normal printing cycle.
    • extra''', '''extra , read all about it!
  • A supernumerary or walk-on in a film or play.

    • Derived terms

    * wuxtry

    Derived terms

    * extra credit English degree adverbs ----

    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 ----