Wesentlich

Wesentlich is a German adjective meaning essential or substantial. It denotes something that is inherent, fundamental, or of decisive importance to a matter. In everyday language it is used to mark what is core or decisive, as in wesentliche Punkte (the key points) or wesentliche Unterschiede (the essential differences). It can also function as an adverb, intensifying an adjective or comparison: wesentlich größer, wesentlich besser, or "das ist wesentlich einfacher" meaning that is substantially easier. The word can express emphasis in terms of importance: Wesentlich ist, dass wir pünktlich sind.

Historically, wesentlîch derives from Wesen (essence, being) plus the suffix -lich; variants appear in Middle High German as wesentlîch. The concept also has philosophical usage: wesentliche Eigenschaft (essential property) versus zufällige Eigenschaften (accidental properties), reflecting Aristotelian terminology.

Common contrasts: unwesentlich (not essential, irrelevant, insignificant) and hauptsächlich (mainly, predominantly) but with distinct nuance. In legal, academic, and technical writing, wesentliche Merkmale or wesentliche Änderung denote elements critical to a definition or decision.

Translations vary by context: essential, fundamental, significant, substantial. In English translations, choose according to sense: essential feature (wesentliche Eigenschaft), a substantial change (wesentliche Änderung), a significantly larger amount (wesentlich größer).