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Glite Dictionary
essential ingredient

essential ingredient

4 3.0
A thing you need for a recipe, process, or result to work
  • noun
translation icon : ingrediente esencial
  • Flour is the essential ingredient needed to bake a perfect loaf of bread.
  • essential ingredient for a successful
  • essential ingredient for success
  • two essential ingredients

It's reality, and reality is an essential ingredient to healing.

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Examples

  • Making connections within the school community is an essential ingredient for success.

    Academic text (2015)

  • Clinical decision support systems require two essential ingredients in order to produce intended results.

    Academic text (2016)

  • And that seems to be the essential ingredient in actually making progress.

  • Anyway, what is the one essential ingredient that made me take any of these writers on?

    Harvard University

  • Delivering services as promised was an essential ingredient in building trust in the school.

    Academic text (2014)

  • A musical ear is widely accepted as an essential ingredient in the education of successful music students.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Passion was frequently mentioned as an essential ingredient in effective public speaking.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Individual and institutional understanding, along with subsequent strong leadership and action, are essential ingredients for change.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Motivation and confidence are considered to be essential ingredients in the recipe for successful sports performance.

    Academic text (1992)

  • The first essential ingredient in creating a memory that's going to last longer than this present moment is attention.

Synonyms

necessity
vsessential ingredient
274 2.0

A thing you need to live, like food or water

is focused on one particular component required for success in a process
key ingredient
vsessential ingredient
12 3.5

The most important part of something, often in a recipe or plan

is narrower, meaning an absolutely required component rather than merely important
must
vsessential ingredient
6 1.0

Something you need and cannot do without

is about a specific component needed for a recipe process or result
requisite
vsessential ingredient
3 6.8

Something needed for a particular activity or purpose

is more everyday and tied to recipes or processes rather than formal requirement
crucial ingredient
vsessential ingredient
1 3.5

An important thing needed for something to work or succeed

is the same meaning but sounds slightly more urgent in tone

How Necessary

essential ingredient
4 3.0
accessory
4.1

Surface Forms

essential ingredient singular
essential ingredients plural

Morphology

essential + ingredient

The meaning 'a component that is absolutely necessary' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'essential' (completely required) with 'ingredient' (a component). This compositional pattern is literal and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand the MWE.

Etymology

The phrase essential ingredient comes from cooking: an ingredient is a part of a recipe and an essential one is a part you cannot leave out, for example the eggs that make a cake rise. So calling something an essential ingredient means it is 'absolutely necessary' for the result to succeed.