Meaning & use
quintessential
Representing the most perfect or typical example of a particular quality or type of thing.
See it in a sentence
With its rolling hills and thatched cottages, the village felt like the quintessential English countryside.
Critics called the film the quintessential example of 1980s action cinema.
A note on using this word
Quintessential is a strong, formal word; reserve it for genuinely ideal or defining examples rather than merely ordinary or common ones.
Words with a similar meaning
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
atypical
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