| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | essential |
| Synonyms: | basic, bottom-line, cardinal, coal-and-ice, constitutive, critical, crucial, decisive, fundamental, heavy*, imperative, important, indispensable, integral, key, life-or-death, meaningful, meat-and-potatoes, name, name-of-the-game, necessary, needed, nitty-gritty, prerequisite, required, requisite, significant, underlined, urgent |
| Notes: | the words crucial, essential, and vital cannot be qualified (cannot be more or less...) |
| Antonyms: | inessential, insignficant, trivial, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | vital |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | alive |
| Synonyms: | animate, animated, breathing, generative, invigorative, life-giving, live, living, quickening |
| Notes: | the words crucial, essential, and vital cannot be qualified (cannot be more or less...) |
| Antonyms: | dead |
| Main Entry: | acute |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very important |
| Synonyms: | afflictive, critical, crucial, dangerous, decisive, desperate, dire, essential, grave, serious, severe, sudden, urgent, vital |
| Notes: | acute is used for a sudden onset and short duration; chronic is for conditions that are slow to develop and of long duration acute is an angle of less than 90 degrees; obtuse is one of more than 90 degrees chronic is contrasted with acute as chronic pain persists over a longer period of time than acute pain and is resistant to most medical treatments |
| Antonyms: | not serious, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | alive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | being animately existent |
| Synonyms: | animate, around, awake, breathing, cognizant, conscious, dynamic, existing, extant, functioning, growing, knowing, live, living, mortal, operative, running, subsisting, viable, vital, working, zoetic |
| Antonyms: | dead, deceased, inanimate, lifeless |
| Main Entry: | alive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | being active, full of life |
| Synonyms: | abounding, alert, animated, awake, brisk, bustling, cheerful, dynamic, eager, energetic, lively, overflowing, quick, ready, replete, rife, sharp, spirited, sprightly, spry, stirring, swarming, teeming, vigorous, vital, vivacious, zestful |
| Antonyms: | dispirited, dull, lifeless, morose, sluggish, spiritless |
| Main Entry: | animate |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | alive |
| Synonyms: | breathing, live, living, mortal, moving, viable, vital, zoetic |
| Antonyms: | dead |
| Main Entry: | animated |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | lively |
| Synonyms: | activated, active, alert, animate, ardent, brisk, buoyant, dynamic, ebullient, elated, energetic, energized, enthusiastic, excited, fervent, gay, happy, passionate, peppy, quick, snappy, spirited, sprightly, vibrant, vigorous, vital, vitalized, vivacious, vivid, zealous, zestful, zingy, zippy |
| Main Entry: | basic |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | elementary, fundamental |
| Synonyms: | basal, capital, central, chief, elemental, essential, indispensable, inherent, intrinsic, key, main, necessary, primary, primitive, principal, radical, substratal, underlying, vital |
| Antonyms: | additional, extra, inessential, nonessential, outside, peripheral, secondary |
| Main Entry: | brawny |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | muscular, strong |
| Synonyms: | able-bodied, athletic, beefy, bulky, burly, fleshy, hardy, hefty, husky, powerful, robust, sinewy, stalwart, strapping, sturdy, thewy, tough, vigorous, vital |
| Antonyms: | frail, skinny, slight, thin, weak |