Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not necessary or important; dispensable.
- noun One that is unnecessary.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not essential; not constituting the essence or essential part; inessential; not of prime importance.
- Void of real being.
- noun Something not constituting essence, or not of absolute necessity: as, forms are among the unessentials of religion.
- noun Same as
unessential note .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Something not constituting essence, or something which is not of absolute necessity.
- adjective Not essential; not of prime importance; not indispensable; unimportant.
- adjective rare Void of essence, or real being.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Not
essential
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective not basic or fundamental
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Geld und Credit, I, 218.) 691 While the words _pecunia_, _danaro_, _dinero_, and _argent_, are all derived from unessential qualities, the German word for money,
System der volkswirthschaft. English Wilhelm Roscher 1855
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It remains for someone who is an artist, a psychologist, and an expert in human limitations to tell us how far the unessential is a necessary means to the essential -- to tell us whether it is easy or difficult or impossible for the artist to destroy every rung in the ladder by which he has climbed to the stars.
Art Clive Bell 1922
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We can recall the unessential, and we forget the fundamental.
The Epistles of St. Peter 1817-1893 1910
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Report Abuse FEDS tell all "unessential" government workers to leave Egypt.
unknown title 2011
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If they're "unessential" what the he11 are they doing there in the first place.
unknown title 2011
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Start cutting all other "unessential" government programs now, not waiting for next year.
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Start cutting all other "unessential" government programs now, not waiting for next year.
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Start cutting all other "unessential" government programs now, not waiting for next year.
Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local PatrickA 2009
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I know many of us are up to our eyeballs in NaNo right now where extra words are a bonus, not a hindrance, but come Dec. 1 when we have to edit that bad boy, Kim Blanks list of unessential words will be a godsend.
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After doing this for so long, I instinctively know the best way to enter and exit a scene, set up a passage of dialogue with beats and tags, avoid cluttering up a passage with unessential words.
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Interview with Kathleen Bolton, part 2 2009
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