Essential and Incidental

Opposite meaning words

sentence examples

Essential

Essential adjective - Being a part of the innermost nature of a person or thing.
Usage example: an unquenchable belief in the essential goodness of most people
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Synonyms for Essential
Antonyms for Essential
Incidental is an antonym for essential in topics: fundamental, basic.
Nearby Words: essence, essentially, essentiality

Incidental

Incidental adjective - Lacking importance.
Usage example: we still have to work out a few incidental details, but the proposal is largely complete
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Synonyms for Incidental
Antonyms for Incidental
Essential is an antonym for incidental in topics: secondary, related.
Nearby Words: incident, incidence, incidentally
Similar words of essential

Similar words of incidental

Both words in one sentence

  • This often depends on which genre the work is classified as; sometimes it becomes incidental as an author intends to deconstruct one genre but actually ends up writing it for another (a lot of tropes are common to many genres, but are only essential to a limited number).
    Source: Indecisive Deconstruction
  • Marathon has a complex and highly-detailed backstory that is still being investigated by fans to this day... almost none of which is essential to actually play the game, as it's contained mostly in incidental data screens in out-of-the-way locations.
    Source: Play the Game, Skip the Story
Cite this Source
Incidental and Essential. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/essential/incidental
Essential & Incidental. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/essential/incidental>.
Incidental or Essential. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/essential/incidental.

Antonyms for essential


Antonyms for incidental

Google Ngram Viewer shows how "essential" and "incidental" have occurred on timeline