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.
By doing so at that time, Musk essentially bought Cursor for free, given how much value SpaceX stock had gained at that exact time.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
Sperling compared this dramatic ecological shift to the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs 65 million years ago, "where mammals essentially took over and never gave up that niche to reptiles again."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
I’m not a lawyer, but as I understand it, the Onion has reached a deal to lease Infowars’ IP, essentially.
From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2026
But when summits become a venue for essentially undermining allied assurance and adversary deterrence, their utility diminishes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
A CDO, in their view, was essentially just a pile of triple-B-rated mortgage bonds.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
