different between unessential vs inessential

English

Etymology

From un- +? essential.

Adjective

unessential (comparative more unessential, superlative most unessential)

1. Not essential.

   Synonyms: inessential, unimportant

   Antonym: essential

   • 1676, Joseph Glanvill, Seasonable Reflections and Discourses, London: R.W. [and] H. Mortlock, p. 92,^[1]

     [I] have a question more to ask you on occasion of what you have told me; and that is, Whether you are to leave every Minister and Church, as soon as any thing is said that is really erroneous, in the lesser and unessential matters?

   • 1716, Joseph Addison, The Free-Holder, No. 39, 4 May, 1716, London: D. Midwinter and J. Tonson, p. 225,^[2]

     [He was] moved rather with Pity than Indignation towards the Persons of those, who differed from him in the unessential Parts of Christianity.

   • 1887, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders, Chapter 18,^[3]

     “ […] strangeness is not in the nature of a thing, but in its relation to something extrinsic—in this case an unessential observer.”

   • 1926, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, New York: Scribner, 1953, Chapter 9, p. 165,^[4]

     But all this part of it seemed remote and unessential.

2. Void of essence, or real being.

   Synonym: unsubstantial

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 2, lines 438-441,^[5]

     These [gates] past, if any pass, the void profound

     Of unessential Night receives him next

     Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being

     Threatens him,

   • 1686, William Hall, A sermon preach'd before Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, London: William Grantham, p. 7,^[6]

     […] even before the Heavens, before those material Orbs, that now rowl over us, were call’d from the dark, and profound Abyss of unessential Nothing:

Derived terms

• unessentiality

See also

• unessentials

English

Etymology

in- +? essential

Adjective

inessential (not comparable)

1. Not essential.

   Leave inessential items behind when there is a fire alarm.

2. Lacking essence or being.

Synonyms

• (not essential): unnecessary, unneeded
• (lacking essence or being): See also Thesaurus:inexistent
• (both senses): nonessential, unessential

Antonyms

• (not essential): essential; See also Thesaurus:requisite
• (lacking essence or being): extant, existent; See also Thesaurus:existent

Translations

Noun

inessential (plural inessentials)

1. (often in plural) Something that is not essential