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Superior vs Essential - What's the difference?

superior | essential |

As adjectives the difference between superior and essential

is that superior is higher in quality while essential is necessary.

As nouns the difference between superior and essential

is that superior is a person of higher rank or quality while essential is a necessary ingredient.

superior

English

Alternative forms

* superiour (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Higher in quality.
  • Higher in rank.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.}}
  • More comprehensive, as a term in classification.
  • A genus is superior to a species.
  • Located above.
  • the superior''' jaw; the '''superior part of an image
  • # (botany) Above the ovary; said of parts of the flower which, although normally below the ovary, adhere to it, and so appear to originate from its upper part; also of an ovary when the other floral organs are plainly below it in position, and free from it.
  • # (botany) Belonging to the part of an axillary flower which is toward the main stem; posterior.
  • # (botany) Pointing toward the apex of the fruit; ascending; said of the radicle.
  • # (typography) Printed in superscript.
  • a superior figure or letter
  • Greater or better than average; extraordinary.
  • Beyond the power or influence of; too great or firm to be subdued or affected by; with to .
  • * Spectator
  • There is not in earth a spectacle more worthy than a great man superior to his sufferings.

    Usage notes

    * Superior and inferior are generally followed by to; than is sometimes used mistakenly.

    Antonyms

    * (l)

    Coordinate terms

    *

    Derived terms

    * superiorness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person of higher rank or quality.
  • The senior person in a monastic community.
  • 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.