Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

essentially

 adverb
     
es‧sen‧tial‧ly S2 W3
used when stating the most basic facts about something [= basically]:
Ballet is essentially a middle-class interest.
Suicide rates have remained essentially unchanged.
[sentence adverb]
Essentially, we are talking about the cold war period.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
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