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

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

If we give up on the courts, we’re going to take away a really essential element of our ability to be Americans.

From Slate • Aug. 4, 2025

That essential element of his identity is presented as merely neutral fact, rather than the alienating circumstance it no doubt was.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 18, 2024

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