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Showing results for essential element. Search instead for essential component.
Synonyms

essential element

British  

noun

  1. biochem any chemical element required by an organism for healthy growth. It may be required in large amounts (macronutrient) or in very small amounts (trace element) See also macronutrient trace element

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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But victim support campaigners argue the orders are "an essential element of Scotland's justice system".

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

Petroleum is an essential element in modern industry, whether used as a fuel, a lubricant or an ingredient in plastics and chemicals.

From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026

It includes Sontag’s “Notes on ‘Camp,’” among whose 58 numbered observations is: “In naïve, or pure, Camp, the essential element is seriousness, a seriousness that fails.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026

If we give up on the courts, we’re going to take away a really essential element of our ability to be Americans.

From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2025

To deny the individual agency of those caught up in the system—their capacity to overcome seemingly impossible odds—would be to deny an essential element of their humanity.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

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