Library / English Dictionary

ESSENTIALLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adverb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

In essence; at bottom or by one's (or its) very nature

Example:

for all his bluster he is in essence a shy person

Synonyms:

basically; essentially; fundamentally

Classified under:

Adverbs

Pertainym:

essential (basic and fundamental)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Characteristic of a filter that gives the upper limit for the frequency content that essentially passes through it.

(Filter Cutoff Frequency, NCI Thesaurus)

A person or thing equal to another in value or measure or force or effect or significance etc; being essentially equal to something.

(Equivalent, NCI Thesaurus)

The mice were then placed in a chamber several hours a day for three weeks where they viewed high-contrast images—essentially changing patterns of black lines.

(Visual activity regenerates neural connections between eye and brain, NIH)

Continued eutrophication essentially kills a lake, with an overgrowth of algae starving its waters of oxygen and leaving fish and other freshwater species unable to breathe.

(Ancient lakes: eyes into the past, and the future, National Science Foundation)

The drug combination essentially shuts down tumor cell ATP production.

(Scientists find promising drug combination against lethal childhood brain cancers, National Institutes of Health)

The instrument essentially took the rings' temperature as they cooled.

(At Saturn, One of These Rings is not like the Others, NASA)

See if you can contribute rather than try to change their ideas into something unrecognizable—essentially yours.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

His was essentially a love-nature, and he possessed more than the average man's need for sympathy.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I don't know that I thought it very reasonable; but I thought it very delightful, and essentially a part of their character.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In some cases, the deaths are a result of carbon starvation, in which trees close their pores, essentially starving themselves by blocking the entry of carbon, which is needed for photosynthesis.

(What's killing trees during droughts?, National Science Foundation)