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essence
[ es-uhns ]
noun
- the basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing or its significant individual feature or features:
Freedom is the very essence of our democracy.
Synonyms: core, soul, principle, heart, lifeblood, spirit, substance
- a substance obtained from a plant, drug, or the like, by distillation, infusion, etc., and containing its characteristic properties in concentrated form.
- an alcoholic solution of an essential oil; spirit.
- a perfume; scent.
- Philosophy. the inward nature, true substance, or constitution of anything, as opposed to what is accidental, phenomenal, illusory, etc.
- something that exists, especially a spiritual or immaterial entity.
essence
/ ˈɛsəns /
noun
- the characteristic or intrinsic feature of a thing, which determines its identity; fundamental nature
- the most distinctive element of a thing
the essence of a problem
- a perfect or complete form of something, esp a person who typifies an abstract quality
he was the essence of gentility
- philosophy
- the unchanging and unchangeable nature of something which is necessary to its being the thing it is; its necessary properties Compare accident
- the properties in virtue of which something is called by its name
- the nature of something as distinct from, and logically prior to, its existence
- theol an immaterial or spiritual entity
- the constituent of a plant, usually an oil, alkaloid, or glycoside, that determines its chemical or pharmacological properties
- an alcoholic solution of such a substance
- a substance, usually a liquid, containing the properties of a plant or foodstuff in concentrated form
vanilla essence
- a rare word for perfume
- in essenceessentially; fundamentally
- of the essenceindispensable; vitally important
Other Words From
- self-essence noun
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of essence1
Idioms and Phrases
- in essence, essentially; at bottom, often despite appearances:
For all his bluster, he is in essence a shy person.
- of the essence, absolutely essential; critical; crucial:
In chess, cool nerves are of the essence.
Example Sentences
Humans spent a long time domesticating cattle, and what they were trying to do, in essence, was de-domesticate them.
They are both viewed in essence like eating Brussels sprouts.
Desert Golfing is the distillation of Angry Birds into its purest essence.
The essence of what Whitney is to me is a beautiful woman, not a beautiful black woman.
“Injustice is injustice, no matter who it touches,” I told Essence Magazine recently.
Whereas Lessard had acted the martinet with MacRae, he took another tack and became the very essence of affability toward me.
But the West is not in its essence a time problem; there, they can wait—next week—next month.
No more admirable illustration can be found of the truth that the essence of defence lies in a vigorous local offence.
Walter Fetherston was a writer of breathless mystery—but he was the essence of mystery himself.
This intention is indeed so necessary that it does not belong to the qualities or attributes of prayer, but to its very essence.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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