Elemental
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A creature (usually a spirit) that is attuned with, or composed of, one of the classical elements: air, earth, fire and water or variations of them like ice, lightning, etc. They sometimes have unique proper names and sometimes are referred to as Air, Earth, Fire, or Water.
"Incidentally, such beings may be said to have an existence of a sort upon the lower astral plane; they are elementals created by man's evil desires and unclean thoughts."
- 1 Of, relating to, or being an element (as opposed to a compound). not-comparable
- 2 Basic, fundamental or elementary. not-comparable
"Those who have escaped the dark and terrible aspects of life will find my brutality, my flash of rage in our final tragedy, easy enough to blame; for they know what is wrong as well as any, but not what is possible to tortured men. But those who have been under the shadow, who have gone down at last to elemental things, will have a wider charity."
- 3 Of the ancient supposed elements of earth, air, fire and water. not-comparable
"Seth is the embodiment of mother-right, warfare, terror, human sacrifice; he is an elemental deity who deals in the fundamental reality of blood."
- 4 Of, or relating to a force of nature, especially to severe atmospheric conditions. broadly, not-comparable
- 1 of or being the essential or basic part wordnet
- 2 relating to or being an element wordnet
- 3 relating to severe atmospheric conditions wordnet
Example
More examples"Elemental Indium is very soft for a metal."
Etymology
From Middle English elementall, from Medieval Latin elementālis; compare Old French elementel. By surface analysis, element + -al.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.