Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use essentially in a sentence

40 example sentences · adverb

Essentially means in essence: by nature. Example: “The beaver is a social creature, not just occasionally but essentially.”

Examples of essentially by meaning

adverbIn essence: by nature.

  • The beaver is a social creature, not just occasionally but essentially.
  • A thin, crunchy lemon and thyme rosti was essentially the pimped-up aesthetic of the Kettle chip.2011 December 18, Jay Rayner, “Restaurant review: Aurelia”, in The Observer, →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2022
  • Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.2012 March, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, pages 112–3

adverbIn essence: in most ways that matter; in all ways that matter.

  • A: So you're saying, in other words, that he's greedy? B: Essentially, yes, that's what I'm saying.

More sentences with essentially

  • The politician's vague response to corruption allegations was essentially a nothing-to-see-here moment.From the entry nothing to see here
  • Theriac was essentially homeopathic in its supposed function, being an improvement on mithridate by virtue of containing more poisons.From the entry theriac
  • After the security upgrades, the facility was essentially Fort Knox.From the entry Fort Knox
  • The skeleton of the organisation is essentially the same as it was ten years ago, but many new faces have come and gone.From the entry skeleton
  • The result is essentially a hybrid species similar in appearance to its extinct forerunner.2025 April 7, Katie Hunt, “Scientists say they have resurrected the dire wolf”, in CNN. From the entry extinct
  • The locomotive can also be charged from shore power, making it essentially a bi-mode shunter.2025 February 19, “Network News: Hydrogen-powered Class 08 shunter unveiled”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 8, in a non-nautical context. From the entry shore power
  • There's also the Shattered Throne dungeon, which has essentially been powercrept out of providing any meaningful challenge.2024 April 16, Phil Savage, “As Destiny 2 enters its latest 'We're so back' era, you can grab all of its expansions for $45 in the Steam…. From the entry powercreep
  • Tabletop Simulator's forums and community have essentially melted under the blazing bigot influx at this point.2022 January 12, Julian Kay (@AlienRopeBurn), Twitter. From the entry Nazi bar
  • Wrought iron is essentially iron that has been worked so that its carbon content is radically reduced.2021 March 24, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Metallic marvels from rail's Iron Age”, in RAIL, number 927, page 57. From the entry wrought iron
  • Essentially the welfare state destroys the ethic which sustains this very state.2021, Andrei Znamenski, “Regime of Goodness: Social Democracy and the Swedish Model, 1920s–1990s”, in Socialism as a Secular Creed: A…. From the entry no strings attached
  • “After being confined for a year, ‘revenge travel’ is essentially a slingshot back into the world.2021 May 19, Caroline Bologna, “'Revenge Travel' Will Be All The Rage Over The Next Few Years”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on…. From the entry revenge travel
  • This server is essentially a multiplayer Minecraft environment where there are no rules.2021, Eve, Martin Paul, Warez: The Infrastructure and Aesthetics of Piracy, page 45. From the entry anarchy server
  • Yes, Manafort pled guilty to essentially these charges in federal court.2019 March 13, The Beat with Ari Melber, spoken by Daniel Alonso, via MSNBC. From the entry elocute
  • Essentially, translingualism questions the idea that only one type of English is acceptable in academic writing.2019, Paula Rawlins and Emma Catherine Perry, “Teaching Translingual: Lesson plans and suggested writing assignments for exploring code…. From the entry translingualism
  • “This story is more evidence that the online political advertising market is essentially the Wild West.2018 March 17, Carole Cadwalladr, Emma Graham-Harrison, “Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major…. From the entry micro-targeting
  • Supporters also claim that cloud bread is, essentially, a 'bread' without carbs.2017 May 17, Joshua Barrie, “Have you tried 'carb-free' cloud bread? Here's what it is and how to make it”, in Belfast Live, archived from…. From the entry carb
  • Kohli says that his white-ball batting is essentially an extension of his Test batting.2017 January 28, Jonathan Liew, “To cling together or drift apart? Red and white-ball cricket facing a divided future”, in The Daily…. From the entry white ball
  • Lincoln made essentially the same arguments when addressing farmers in Wisconsin and workers in New York.2017, Bradley C. S. Watson, Progressive Challenges to the American Constitution, page 193. From the entry Lincolnlike
  • Jacobinism was essentially a synthesis of eco- nomic dictatorship and arbitrary justice.2017, Peter Sloterdijk, “On Pseudonymous Politics: Regarding Implicit and Explicit Misconceptions of Democracy”, in Victoria Stiles…. From the entry phobocracy
  • Essentially, Jarden makes anything that you’d find left behind after a burglary.2016, Tim Carvell [et al.], “Pennies”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 35, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros.…. From the entry burglary
  • A chimera is essentially a hybrid animal made up of various animal parts.2016, Thomas A. Fudgé, “Gargoyles and Glimpses of Forgotten Worlds”, in Medieval Religion and Its Anxieties: History and Mystery in the…. From the entry chimera
  • It is commonly used in the theatre where an understudy essentially deputizes for an indisposed actor.2016, Ian Cunningham, The Handbook of Work Based Learning, page 111. From the entry deputize
  • This essentially transfers one of the Performer's BP to another character.2016, GamerGuides.com, Bravely Second: End Layer - Strategy Guide. From the entry gamebreaking
  • Exponentiation is essentially a move to the power set—the set of all subsets of a given set.2015, Amir D. Aczel, Finding Zero: A Mathematician's Odyssey to Uncover the Origins of Numbers, Palgrave MacMillan, page 147. From the entry power set
  • All patients had bilateral blepharoptosis, limited supraduction, and essentially complete ophthalmoplegia.2015 July 17, Wen Miao et al., “Brain Abnormalities in Congenital Fibrosis of the Extraocular Muscles Type 1: A Multimodal MRI Imaging…. From the entry supraduction
  • The spin transresistivity coefficient is essentially enhanced in the diffusive regime, as compared to conventional predictions.2015, A. G. Yashenkin, I. V. Gornyi, “Low-temperature spin Coulomb drag in a two-dimensional electron gas”, in arXiv. From the entry transresistivity
  • So does an associated phenomenon, called anemoia, which is essentially nostalgia for a past you’ve never experienced.2015 November 15, Robert Trussell, “Awash in nostalgia”, in The Kansas City Star, volume 136, number 59, Kansas City, Mo., page 12D. From the entry anemoia
  • They were perfect, but then I essentially suffered Munchausen by proxy with them.2014 April 11, Alison Rosen, “I destroyed my perfect black jeans”, in Lisa Wall, editor, The News Herald, volume 129, number 87…. From the entry jeans-y
  • Okubo's memorandum was essentially a blueprint for making modern Japan a successful example of Herodism.2013, Makoto Iokibe, The Diplomatic History of Postwar Japan, →ISBN, pages 2–3. From the entry herodism
  • Are they essentially all from programmers, or are there other users in the e-gnorant zone like me?2013, John McPhee, The New Yorker. From the entry e-gnorant
  • The Machmeter is essentially an airspeed instrument that is calibrated in relation to Mach on the dial.2012, Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook-Airframe Volume 2, FAA. From the entry machmeter
  • Such entities essentially give private companies a quick and easy way to enter the public markets.2012 June 20, Michael J. de la Merced, “Burger King Rejoins the Public Markets”, NYTimes.com. From the entry blank check company
  • Both provide corrective optics which essentially cancel the wavefront error introduced by the misfigured primary mirror.2012, Willem Wamsteker, Malcolm S. Longair, Y. Kondo, Frontiers Of Space And Ground-Based Astronomy, page 93. From the entry misfigure
  • This means that this vast trove of social traffic is essentially invisible to most analytics programs.[2012 October 12, Alexis C. Madrigal, “Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong”, in The Atlantic. From the entry dark social
  • I pointed out that they both looked equally unhappy, and that he was essentially kicking himself.27 September 2010, Charlie Brooker, The Guardian. From the entry flob
  • The "skapri" (AAAAHHHHHH worst term ever) is essentially the skirted swimsuit of the running world.2010 September 28, “A few things...”, in Go Tracy Go. From the entry skapri

Meaning of essentially

  1. adverb In essence: by nature.
  2. adverb In essence: in most ways that matter; in all ways that matter.

Full definition of essentially

Questions about essentially in a sentence

How do you use essentially in a sentence?
Essentially is used as an adverb. For example: “The beaver is a social creature, not just occasionally but essentially.”
What is a short sentence with essentially?
“After the security upgrades, the facility was essentially Fort Knox.”
What does essentially mean?
Essentially means in essence: by nature.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: essentially (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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