essentially

British  

/ ɪˈsɛnʃəlɪ /

adverb

1. in a fundamental or basic way; in essence

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Explanation

Notice the tie between essentially and the word "essence," referring to the very core of something. As an adverb, then, essentially refers to something's nature. In spite of your faults, you're essentially a good person. The word essentia came from the Lower Latin, referring to something's inherent qualities. If you're convinced that there's not much difference between two things, you might say that they are essentially the same. Nietzsche once made the essentially sexist comment, "Man wishes woman to be peaceable, but in fact she is essentially warlike, like the cat.”

Example Sentences

"Stress essentially leads to sexual reproduction, and when that happens, we can see a massive increase in dispersal distances as animals attempt to colonise new areas due to an increase in competition."

From Science Daily • Jun. 10, 2026

The official statistics are essentially the number of people sleeping or about to bed down in the open air or in buildings not designated for habitation, such as car parks, on a single night.

From BBC • Jun. 10, 2026

Their most severe scenario was the current Hormuz reality, whereby the strait, the former conduit of about a fifth of the world’s crude and crude products, essentially closed.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026

That is essentially the plan Lebanon and Israel agreed to last week.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026

Thus it is important to see that when we hail Theodoric as an important scientist our judgement is essentially anachronistic: he did not seem important to his contemporaries or successors, and his influence is negligible.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Related Words

• actually
• approximately
• necessarily
• originally
• permanently
• quite
• really
• substantially
• truly
• typically
• virtually