From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishquintessentialquin‧tes‧sen‧tial /ˌkwɪntəˈsenʃəl◂/ adjective EXAMPLEbeing a perfect example of a particular type of person or thing SYN typical ‘Guys and Dolls’ is the quintessential American musical.► see thesaurus at typical —quintessentially adverb a place that is quintessentially English
Examples from the Corpus
quintessential• And this august body of quintessential back-room people must now press loudly and firmly for this to happen.• New York is the quintessential big city.• In Paris, the quintessential city of freedom and discretion, he could lead a double life.• They stood, she thought, the quintessential family, looking out from their sanctuary into the vague but hopeful unknown.• It was the quintessential Knight roster: No superstars, but balanced, cohesive and, above all, consistent.• Thus Rosalind Krauss can argue that photography is the quintessential surrealist art form. 