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Essential vs Wise - What's the difference?

essential | wise |

As an adjective essential

is necessary.

As a noun essential

is a necessary ingredient.

As an acronym wise is

(aviation|nautical) (adjective).

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.
  • wise

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) wis, wys, from (etyl) . Cognate with Dutch wijs, German weise, Swedish vis. Compare wit.

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Showing good judgement or the benefit of experience.
  • Storing extra food for the winter was a wise decision.
    They were considered the wise old men of the administration.
    "It is a profitable thing, if one is wise , to seem foolish" - Aeschylus
  • (colloquial) Disrespectful.
  • Don't get wise with me!
    Usage notes
    * Objects: person, decision, advice, counsel, saying, etc.
    Antonyms
    * unwise * foolish
    Derived terms
    * crack wise * wisdom * wiseacre * wise apple * wiseass * wisecrack * wise guy * wise-hearted * wiseling * wiselike * wiseness * wizen * wizard * word to the wise

    Verb

    (wis)
  • To become wise.
  • (ergative, slang) Usually with "up", to inform or learn.
  • Mo wised him up about his situation.
    ''After Mo had a word with him, he wised up.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) Way, manner, method.
  • * 1850 , The Burden of Nineveh , lines 2-5
  • ... the prize
    Dead Greece vouchsafes to living eyes, —
    Her Art for ever in fresh wise
    From hour to hour rejoicing me.
  • * 1866 , , A Ballad of Life , lines 28-30
  • A riven hood was pulled across his eyes;
    The token of him being upon this wise
    Made for a sign of Lust.
  • * 1926 , J. S. Fletcher, Sea Fog , page 308
  • And within a few minutes the rest of us were on our way too, judiciously instructed by Parkapple and the Brighton official, and disposed of in two taxi-cabs, the drivers of which were ordered to convey us to Rottingdean in such wise that each set his load of humanity at different parts of the village and at the same time that the bus was due to arrive at the hotel.
    Derived terms
    * -wise

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

  • (dialectal) to instruct
  • (dialectal) to advise; induce
  • (dialectal) to show the way, guide
  • (dialectal) to direct the course of, pilot
  • (dialectal) to cause to turn