essentially

adverb

es·​sen·​tial·​ly i-ˈsen(t)-shə-lē 

-ˈsench-lē

: in essence : fundamentally

—used to identify or stress the basic or essential character or nature of a person or thing or to say that a description is basically true or accurate

He's essentially a good man.

… painting, essentially a two-dimensional art …

—Herbert Read

The fact that so many bloggers are essentially anonymous allows them to spew rancor, rumor, lies, and obscenities.

—Gil Troy

Aphids feed on the sugary phloem of plants. Essentially they steal the product of photosynthesis.

—Caleb Rounds

Examples of essentially in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That game also took out more than 100 brackets in Yahoo Sports’ Men’s Bracket Mayhem, leaving 81 perfect brackets, essentially down to 0%. —Jackson Thompson, Fox News, 22 Mar. 2025

This, essentially, was the message on display at the Television Academy‘s second annual AI Summit, hosted Saturday, March 15 at the Saban Media Center in North Hollywood. —Harrison Richlin, IndieWire, 21 Mar. 2025

Fields’ contract is essentially for one season, and the Jets could release him next offseason. —Antwan Staley, New York Daily News, 21 Mar. 2025

Jetboil The Flash Java, essentially the Flash with a stowable silicone coffee press, receives the same updates as the Flash. —New Atlas, 21 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1774, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for essentially

• potentially
• confidentially
• exponentially
• inferentially
• experientially