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Definition of essential : 1. Belonging to the essence, or that which makes an object, or class of objects, what it is.
2. Containing the essence or characteristic portion of a substance, as of a plant; highly rectified; pure; hence, unmixed; as, an essential oil.
3. Hence, really existing; existent.
4. Idiopathic; independent of other diseases.
5. Important in the highest degree; indispensable to the attainment of an object; indispensably necessary.
6. Necessary; indispensable; - said of those tones which constitute a chord, in distinction from ornamental or passing tones.

Synonyms:

integral, meaty, inbred, requirement, necessity, no-frills, constituent, indwelling, inherent, primitive, constitutive, vital, native, infixed, quintessential, important, ingrained, ultimate, needful, substantial, natural, staple, inborn, surface, innate, inhering, intrinsic, be, constitutional, immanent, in essence, substantive, virtual, organic, of the essence, subjective, biogenic, all-important, congenital, inwrought, crucial, inseparable, life-sustaining, underlying, demand, internal

convergent, core, central, asymptotic, focal, nuclear, key

real, ontological, subsistent, subsisting, extant, present, existing, existent

instrumental, helpful, principle, useful, valuable, effectual

basic, irreducible, blameless, angelic, primal, pure, aboriginal, immaculate, formative, primary, undiluted, purebred, basal, honorable, elemental, unadulterated, spotless, uncluttered, innocent, unsullied, undefiled, unblemished, elementary, sinless, guiltless, simon-pure, stainless, monolithic, prime, nascent, faultless, austere, clear, stark, unadorned, white, unalloyed, virtuous, chaste, bare, decent, clean, atomic, untarnished, untainted, plain, indivisible, foundational, fundamental, simple

inevitable, must, compulsory, pressing, proviso, necessary, inescapable, mandatory, requisite, constraining, inexorable, obligatory, required, indispensable, prerequisite, stipulated, imperative, binding, involuntary

Usage examples:

• And he so believed it to be, now, the only essential truth, or, at least, the half- truth that she had better believe in, that his smile had not a touch of bitterness. - "The Nest, The White Pagoda, The Suicide, A Forsaken Temple, Miss Jones and The Masterpiece", Anne Douglas Sedgwick.
• Water is an essential of life. - "Quiet Talks on Power", S.D. Gordon.
• Its essential truth to life sometimes makes one catch one's breath. - "Varied Types", G. K. Chesterton.