Essentials

How to spell essentials

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce essentials

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does essentials mean?

1. nounThe fundamental things that are absolutely necessary or most important.

Essentials in a sentence

• She packed only the essentials for the weekend trip.

• The budget covered rent, food, and other monthly essentials.

Where does essentials come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin essentia, meaning 'being' or 'the nature of a thing', which was coined by philosophers as an abstract noun from esse, the verb 'to be'. From essentia came the Late Latin essentialis, describing whatever belongs to the true nature of something, and English borrowed the adjective 'essential' through Old French in the late fourteenth century. Over time 'essential' broadened from its weighty philosophical sense into the everyday meaning of 'absolutely necessary', and the plural noun 'essentials' came to mean the basic things one cannot do without. The same esse root sits quietly inside words such as 'essence' and 'present', which helps explain the doubled inner 's': it carries the same hiss as 'essence' rather than a single softer sound. Keeping that double s and the -tial ending in mind is the surest way to avoid the common slip toward 'essencials' or 'esentials'.

How the word is built

• essent- (from Latin essentia: being, essence, ultimately from esse 'to be')
• -ial (adjective/noun suffix)
• -s (plural)