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Essential vs Formative - What's the difference?

essential | formative | Related terms |

Essential is a related term of formative.


As adjectives the difference between essential and formative

is that essential is necessary while formative is of or pertaining to the formation and subsequent growth of something.

As nouns the difference between essential and formative

is that essential is a necessary ingredient while formative is (grammar) a language unit that has morphological function.

essential

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Necessary.
  • Very important; of high importance.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17
    • , author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot , title=Money just makes the rich suffer , volume=188, issue=23, page=19 , magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) citation , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax. […]}}
  • Being in the basic form; showing its essence.
    • Don’t mind him being grumpy. That’s the essential Fred.
  • Really existing; existent.
  • * Webster (1623)
    • Is it true, that thou art but a name, / And no essential thing?
  • Such that each complementary region is irreducible, the boundary of each complementary region is incompressible by disks and monogons in the complementary region, and no leaf is a sphere or a torus bounding a solid torus in the manifold.
  • (medicine) Idiopathic.

    • Synonyms

    * indispensable, crucial, substantive * See also

    Antonyms

    * inessential, unessential, accidental, nonessential, unneeded, adscititious, unimportant, accessorial, unnecessary, incidental

    Derived terms

    * essential amino acid * essential fatty acid * essential listening * essential nutrient * essential oil * essentially * essentialness * quintessential

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A necessary ingredient.
  • A fundamental ingredient.

    • Related terms

    * essence ----

    formative

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of or pertaining to the formation and subsequent growth of something.
    • My formative years were spent in an inner city.
  • Capable of forming something.
  • (biology) Capable of producing new tissue.
  • (grammar) Pertaining to the inflection of words.

    • Derived terms

    * formativeness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (grammar) A language unit that has morphological function.
    • ----