essentially
Britishadverb
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.”
Vocabulary lists containing essentially
Amari and the Night Brothers
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Essentially a series of chases, the cartoon opens with the dog Bimbo hot on the tail of a chicken and continues with the same pooch being followed by a canine cop.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026
Essentially the Bank was trying to provide detail around some of the "ifs" and "maybes" to manage expectations of what outcomes are plausible if the Gulf impasse lasts several months.
From BBC • Apr. 30, 2026
Essentially, we think these creatures started out their lives on four legs… they then started walking on two legs as they grew up.
From Science Daily • Apr. 23, 2026
Essentially, a company like Nvidia might be interested in buying a PC maker so that it can more easily integrate AI on premise, rather than in the cloud.
From Barron's • Apr. 13, 2026
Essentially ratcheting himself upward, a climber thereby ascends the rope. the rope.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
