Word family noun essence essentials ≠ inessentials adjective essential ≠ inessential adverb essentially
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishessentiallyes‧sen‧tial‧ly /ɪˈsenʃəli/ ●●○ S3 W3 adverb BASICused when stating the most basic facts about something SYN basically Ballet is essentially a middle-class interest. Suicide rates have remained essentially unchanged.[sentence adverb] Essentially, we are talking about the cold war period.Examples from the Corpus
essentially• Polk clearly states her belief that the world is essentially a good place.• I see art as essentially a luxury.• It was essentially confined to our division.• Essentially, "domicile" is just a legal term for the place where you live.• He listens politely, then makes plausible but essentially empty gestures.• But essentially I was moving away from dead ends more than being drawn toward children.• The whole argument might be presented as proceeding, essentially, in three main stages.• But much of what Congress is doing now is essentially meaningless.• Taking usage rate as a variable essentially means segmenting on the basis of volume purchased.• She's added a few characters and changed some names but essentially this is a true story.• What mechanism allows toadstools -- essentially very soft and squashy items -- to push through two inches of asphalt? 