Nearby Words
| Main Entry: | |
| 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: | 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: | essential |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important, vital |
| Synonyms: | capital, cardinal, chief, constitutive, crucial, foremost, fundamental, imperative, indispensable, leading, main, necessary, necessitous, needed, needful, prerequisite, principal, required, requisite, right-hand, wanted |
| Notes: | the words crucial, essential, and vital cannot be qualified (cannot be more or less...) |
| Antonyms: | accessory, auxiliary, inessential, minor, nonessential, secondary, subsidiary, unimportant |
| 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: | imperative |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | necessary |
| Synonyms: | acute, burning, clamant, clamorous, compulsory, critical, crucial, crying, essential, exigent, immediate, important, importunate, indispensable, inescapable, insistent, instant, no turning back, obligatory, pressing, urgent, vital |
| Antonyms: | inessential, optional, secondary, unnecessary, voluntary |
| Main Entry: | inherent |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | basic, hereditary |
| Synonyms: | built-in, characteristic, congenital, connate, constitutional, deep-rooted, deep-seated, distinctive, elementary, essential, fixed, fundamental, genetic, immanent, implicit, in the grain, inborn, inbred, inbuilt, indigenous, indispensable, individual, indwelling, ingrained, inherited, innate, inner, instinctive, integral, integrated, internal, intimate, intrinsic, inward, latent, native, natural, original, part and parcel, resident, running in the family, subjective, unalienable |
| Notes: | the word innate means 'inborn' and should apply to living things; inherent is 'essential, intrinsic' and applies best to nonliving things like ideas |
| Antonyms: | acquired, added, external, extrinsic, incidental, learned |
| Main Entry: | integral |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | necessary, basic |
| Synonyms: | component, constituent, elemental, essential, fundamental, indispensable, intrinsic, requisite |
| Antonyms: | extrinsic, secondary, supplemental, unnecessary |
| Main Entry: | key |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | essential, important |
| Synonyms: | basic, chief, crucial, decisive, fundamental, indispensable, leading, main, major, material, pivotal, primary, principal, vital |
| Antonyms: | inessential, insignificant, nonessential, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | life-and-death |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | extremely important |
| Synonyms: | all-important, consequential, critical, crucial, determining, earth-shaking, earth-shattering, essential, imperative, important, indispensable, life or death, meaningful, of vital importance, paramount, pivotal, serious, significant, urgent, vital, vitally important |
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
