Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not essential; unessential.
  • adjective Without essence.
  • noun Something that is not essential.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not essential; unessential.
  • Immaterial.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having no essence or being.
  • adjective Not essential; not required to achieve a given purpose; unessential; unnecessary.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective not essential
  • adjective lacking essence or being
  • noun often in plural Something that is not essential

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not absolutely necessary
  • noun anything that is not essential
  • adjective not basic or fundamental

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

in- +‎ essential

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