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

Economic activity there essentially ended in 1877, when the trade in elephant seal oil was ended and the human population of sealers left the remote islands, which are located en route from Madagascar to Antarctica. —Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 3 Apr. 2025

The work took advantage of the fact that the National Health Service Wales made the vaccine available with a very specific age limit, essentially creating two populations, vaccinated and unvaccinated, separated by a single date. —John Timmer, ArsTechnica, 3 Apr. 2025

World leaders reacted to the sweeping tariffs President Donald Trump released this week impacting essentially every U.S. trading partner. —Caitlin McFall, FOXNews.com, 3 Apr. 2025

This is essentially how WormGPT and similar tools evolved within months. —Ron Williams, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1774, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for essentially

• potentially
• confidentially
• exponentially
• inferentially
• experientially