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
Etymology
Origin of elemental
From the Medieval Latin word elementālis, dating back to 1485–95. See element, -al 1
Vocabulary lists containing elemental
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.
Because these tiny particles could circulate and mix efficiently throughout the disk, they preserved a chemical composition that closely resembles the overall elemental mixture found in the Sun.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026
“Possible Love” hovers over the moment’s sublimity like the moonlight and I haven’t stopped thinking about its elemental beauty since.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
But you watch these episodes, and he’s asking really elemental stuff about humanity.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2026
In December 2024, Mr. Lloyd lost another treasured collaborator, Zakir Hussain—his generation’s acknowledged master of tabla, the paired hand drums that are elemental to Indian music.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
And he is in the dying city, crumbling into dust like an elemental fiend.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
