| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | basic |
| Synonyms: | beginning, easy, elementary, fundamental, initial, lowest, necessary |
| Main Entry: | bottom |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | lowest; fundamental |
| Synonyms: | basal, base, basement, basic, foundational, ground, last, lowermost, lowest, meat-and-potatoes, nethermost, primary, radical, rock-bottom, underlying, undermost |
| Antonyms: | highest, top, unnecessary |
| Main Entry: | cardinal |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important, key |
| Synonyms: | basal, basic, central, chief, constitutive, essential, first, foremost, fundamental, greatest, highest, indispensable, leading, main, overriding, overruling, paramount, pivotal, preeminent, primary, prime, principal, ruling, vital |
| Antonyms: | inessential, insignificant, minor, negligible, secondary, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | elementary |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | simple, basic |
| Synonyms: | ABCs, abecedarian, basal, beginning, child's play, clear, duck soup, easy, elemental, essential, facile, foundational, fundamental, initial, introductory, meat and potatoes, original, plain, prefatory, preliminary, primary, primitive, primo, rudimentary, simplest, simplex, simplified, straightforward, substratal, uncomplex, uncomplicated, underlying |
| Antonyms: | abstruse, advanced, complex, complicated, compound, difficult, hard, intricate, involved, secondary |
| Main Entry: | essential |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | basic, fundamental |
| Synonyms: | absolute, basal, cardinal, cold, complete, congenital, connate, constitutional, deep-seated, elemental, elementary, ideal, inborn, inbred, inherent, innate, intrinsic, key, main, material, meat and potatoes, name of the game, nitty-gritty, nub, perfect, primary, prime, primitive, principal, quintessential, substratal, underlying |
| Notes: | the words crucial, essential, and vital cannot be qualified (cannot be more or less...) |
| Antonyms: | atypical, minor, secondary |
| Main Entry: | fundamental |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | basic, important |
| Synonyms: | axiological, axiomatic, basal, bottom, bottom-line, cardinal, central, constitutional, constitutive, crucial, elemental, elementary, essential, first, foundational, grass-roots, indispensable, integral, intrinsic, key, major, meat-and-potatoes, necessary, organic, original, paramount, primary, prime, primitive, primordial, principal, radical, requisite, rudimentary, significant, structural, substratal, substrative, supporting, sustaining, theoretical, underived, underlying, vital |
| Antonyms: | additional, advanced, auxiliary, extra, minor, secondary, subordinate, trivial, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | indispensable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | necessary |
| Synonyms: | basal, basic, cardinal, crucial, essential, fundamental, imperative, key, necessitous, needed, needful, prerequisite, primary, required, requisite, vital |
| Antonyms: | dispensable, needless, nonessential, redundant, superfluous, unnecessary |
| Main Entry: | minimal |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | littlest, slightest |
| Synonyms: | basal, basic, essential, fundamental, least, least possible, lowest, minimum, nominal, smallest, token |
| Notes: | nominal means insignificantly small; minimal means the least possible or smallest in amount and degree |
| Antonyms: | maximum, most |
| Main Entry: | organic |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | basic, natural |
| Synonyms: | amoebic, anatomical, animate, basal, biological, biotic, cellular, constitutional, elemental, essential, fundamental, inherent, innate, integral, live, living, necessary, nuclear, original, plasmic, primary, prime, primitive, principal, structural, vital |
| Notes: | if a compound contains carbon, it is organic; no carbon indicates inorganic |
| Antonyms: | inorganic, man-made, unnatural |