Essential and Option

Essential

Essential noun - Something necessary, indispensable, or unavoidable.

Option is an antonym for essential.

Nearby Words: essence, essentially, essentiality

Option

Option noun - Something that is not necessary in itself but adds to the convenience or performance of the main piece of equipment.
Usage example: a slew of options that would add several thousand dollars to the base price of the car

Essential is an antonym for option.

Nearby Words: opt, optional, optionally, opting, optionee

How words are described

good good essential good option
obvious obvious essential obvious option
bad bad essential bad option
main main essential main option

Both words in one sentence

  • Film / Gettysburg This in any case was never a realistic option because as far as the leaders were concerned, slavery really was the essential cause for the South.
  • Literature / Theirs Not To Reason Why Combined with Death Is the Only Option in that Ia's death is merely another (albeit essential) step of her plan.
  • Arthéon from Noob, showing it mostly via interest in the game's background and refusal to de-activate the "taking distance between avatars into account" option on the microphones unless it's essential to the success of the quest.
Cite this Source
Option and Essential. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/essential/option
Essential & Option. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/essential/option>.
Option or Essential. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/essential/option.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "essential" and "option" have occurred on timeline