elemental

[el-uh-men-tl]

adjective

1. of the nature of an ultimate constituent; simple; uncompounded.

2. pertaining to rudiments or first principles.

3. starkly simple, primitive, or basic.

   a spare, elemental prose style; hate, lust, and other elemental emotions.

4. pertaining to the agencies, forces, or phenomena of physical nature.

   elemental gods.

5. comparable to the great forces of nature, as in power or magnitude.

   elemental grandeur.

6. of, relating to, or of the nature of the four elements, earth, water, air, and fire, or of any one of them.

7. pertaining to chemical elements.

elemental

/ ˌɛlɪˈmɛntəl /

adjective

1. fundamental; basic; primal

   the elemental needs of man

2. motivated by or symbolic of primitive and powerful natural forces or passions

   elemental rites of worship

3. of or relating to earth, air, water, and fire considered as elements

4. of or relating to atmospheric forces, esp wind, rain, and cold

5. of, relating to, or denoting a chemical element

noun

1. rare,  a spirit or force that is said to appear in physical form

Other Word Forms

• elementally adverb
• nonelemental adjective
• nonelementally adverb
• postelemental adjective
• preelemental adjective
• subelemental adjective
• subelementally adverb
• transelemental adjective
• unelemental adjective
• unelementally adverb
• elementalism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of elemental¹

From the Medieval Latin word elementālis, dating back to 1485–95. See element, -al ¹

Example Sentences

Mr. Icke’s expansion of the cast of characters does not really enrich the elemental drama, but it hardly needs to, given the baleful nature of the narrative.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Her exhaustion is elemental, something outside of her control.

Read more on Salon

“The most elemental device is a metal pail with a tight cover.”

Read more on Literature

There’s also a stray reference to “Waiting for Godot” and, just like Beckett’s classic play, Panahi’s film is elemental, its every understated moment fraught with meaning.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

"We had to design new chemistry methods that minimized elemental loss while still isolating multiple elements from the same fragment. Without this, we could never have detected such subtle signs of late fluid activity."

Read more on Science Daily

Related Words

• elementary