elemental
Americanadjective
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of the nature of an ultimate constituent; simple; uncompounded.
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pertaining to rudiments or first principles.
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starkly simple, primitive, or basic.
a spare, elemental prose style; hate, lust, and other elemental emotions.
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pertaining to the agencies, forces, or phenomena of physical nature.
elemental gods.
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comparable to the great forces of nature, as in power or magnitude.
elemental grandeur.
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of, relating to, or of the nature of the four elements, earth, water, air, and fire, or of any one of them.
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pertaining to chemical elements.
adjective
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fundamental; basic; primal
the elemental needs of man
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motivated by or symbolic of primitive and powerful natural forces or passions
elemental rites of worship
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of or relating to earth, air, water, and fire considered as elements
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of or relating to atmospheric forces, esp wind, rain, and cold
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of, relating to, or denoting a chemical element
noun
Other Word Forms
- elementalism noun
- elementally adverb
- nonelemental adjective
- nonelementally adverb
- postelemental adjective
- preelemental adjective
- subelemental adjective
- subelementally adverb
- transelemental adjective
- unelemental adjective
- unelementally adverb
Etymology
Origin of elemental
From the Medieval Latin word elementālis, dating back to 1485–95. See element, -al 1
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.
“Tomato and egg is a culinary truth, one of those elemental pairings that shows up across cultures not because anyone decided it should, but because it just makes sense,” writes Salon’s Ashlie D. Stevens.
From Salon • Apr. 6, 2026
Back in Cirencester, Dr David O'Connor showed me a new kind of "elemental microscope" that can be used to identify traces of dangerous elements in soil.
From BBC • Mar. 13, 2026
In some sense, Mr. McElwee is a practitioner of cinema at its most elemental.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 10, 2026
Earlier studies on Rapa Nui relied on indicators such as pollen, plant remains, elemental chemistry, and how quickly sediments built up to infer past environmental changes.
From Science Daily • Feb. 10, 2026
Upon inquiring how Churchill’s had made such an elemental error, he was told that the information had been provided to them by Dr. Owen himself.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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.
