essential element

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Petroleum is an essential element in modern industry, whether used as a fuel, a lubricant or an ingredient in plastics and chemicals.

From Barron's • Mar. 13, 2026

But if you say you’re fighting a war on behalf of a country’s oppressed people, it’s a good idea—in fact, it is an essential element of the war strategy—to think about this problem.

From Slate • Mar. 13, 2026

It includes Sontag’s “Notes on ‘Camp,’” among whose 58 numbered observations is: “In naïve, or pure, Camp, the essential element is seriousness, a seriousness that fails.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026

Earlier this fall, a group of faith leaders including priests and nuns were detained after being refused admission inside to administer communion, an essential element of a Catholic’s faith life.

From Salon • Nov. 16, 2025

Not surprisingly, then, preventing arbitrary searches and seizures by the police was deemed by the Founding Fathers an essential element of the U.S.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander