elemental

From element +‎ -al.

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  * Rhymes: -ɛntəl
• Hyphenation: el‧e‧men‧tal

elemental (not comparable)

1. (chemistry) Of, relating to, or being an element (as opposed to a compound).
2. Basic, fundamental or elementary.
   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 219:

     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.

   • 2000, Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers, New York: Vintage Books, pages 79–80:

     The pervasive emptiness and stultifying summer heat were only minor deterrents when compared with the more elemental consideration that all the banking and commercial institutions were based elsewhere, chiefly in Philadelphia and New York.

3. Of the ancient supposed elements of earth, air, fire and water.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 216:

     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. (by extension) Of, or relating to a force of nature, especially to severe atmospheric conditions.

elemental (plural elementals)

1. (mysticism, fantasy) 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.
   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 115:

     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.

From element +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ə.lə.mənˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [e.le.menˈtal]

elemental m or f (masculine and feminine plural elementals)

1. elemental

elemental m (plural elementals)

1. (alchemy, folklore, mythology) elemental

• “elemental” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “elemental”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “elemental” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “elemental” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From elemento +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): /elemenˈtal/ [e.le.mẽn̪ˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: e‧le‧men‧tal

elemental m or f (masculine and feminine plural elementales)

1. elemental

elemental m (plural elementales)

1. (alchemy, folklore, mythology) elemental

• “elemental”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28