The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word CORE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
C
O
R
E
More clues leading to the result CORE
- Essential part of company: engineers
- Owner-occupier’s about to secure centre
- Caught group in army base
- Tactical unit, reportedly essential element
- What sweetheart shows heart?
- Twenty losing head and heart
- Middle, beginning or end of course
- Task abandoned by husband — one needs heart
- One possibly in the lead as a conductor
- My electronic hub
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "essential element" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case essential element = core.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does CORE mean?
CORE noun- The central part of fruit, containing the kernels or seeds.
- The heart or inner part of a physical thing
- The center or inner part of a space or area
- The most important part of a thing; the essence.
- The portion of a mold that creates an internal cavity within a casting or that makes a hole in or through a casting.
- The bony process which forms the central axis of the horns in many animals.
- Magnetic data storage.
- An individual computer processor, in the sense when several processors (called cores or CPU cores) are plugged together in one single integrated circuit to work as one (called multi-core processor).
- The material between surface materials in a structured composite sandwich material.
- The inner part of a nuclear reactor in which the nuclear reaction takes place.
- A piece of ferromagnetic material (i.e. soft iron), inside the windings of an electromagnet, that channels the magnetic field.
- A disorder of sheep caused by worms in the liver.
- A cylindrical sample of rock or other materials obtained by core drilling.
- A tiny sample of organic material obtained by means of a fine-needle biopsy.
- The central part of a protein structure consisting in mostly hydrophobic aminoacids.
- The set of feasible allocations that cannot be improved upon by a subset (a coalition) of the economy's agents.
- A hollow cylindrical piece of cardboard around which a web of paper or plastic is winded.
- An atomic nucleus plus inner electrons (i.e. except valence electrons).
- To remove the core of an apple or other fruit.
- To extract a sample with a drill.
- A body of individuals; an assemblage.
- A miner's underground working time or shift.
- Various former units of volume, particularly:
- (machinery, marine) A deposit paid by the purchaser of a rebuilt part, to be refunded on return of a used, rebuildable part, or the returned rebuildable part itself.