Definitions for essence
ˈɛs ənsessence

Princeton's WordNet(1.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. kernel, substance, core, center, centre, essence, gist, heart, heart and soul, inwardness, marrow, meat, nub, pith, sum, nitty-grittynoun

   the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

   "the gist of the prosecutor's argument"; "the heart and soul of the Republican Party"; "the nub of the story"

2. essencenoun

   any substance possessing to a high degree the predominant properties of a plant or drug or other natural product from which it is extracted

3. effect, essence, burden, core, gistnoun

   the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work

4. perfume, essencenoun

   a toiletry that emits and diffuses a fragrant odor

Wiktionary(3.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. essencenoun

   The inherent nature of a thing or idea.

2. essencenoun

   A significant feature of something.

3. essencenoun

   The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.

4. essencenoun

   Fragrance, a perfume.

5. essencenoun

   The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.

Webster Dictionary(3.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Essencenoun

   the constituent elementary notions which constitute a complex notion, and must be enumerated to define it; sometimes called the nominal essence

2. Essencenoun

   the constituent quality or qualities which belong to any object, or class of objects, or on which they depend for being what they are (distinguished as real essence); the real being, divested of all logical accidents; that quality which constitutes or marks the true nature of anything; distinctive character; hence, virtue or quality of a thing, separated from its grosser parts

3. Essencenoun

   constituent substance

4. Essencenoun

   a being; esp., a purely spiritual being

5. Essencenoun

   the predominant qualities or virtues of a plant or drug, extracted and refined from grosser matter; or, more strictly, the solution in spirits of wine of a volatile or essential oil; as, the essence of mint, and the like

6. Essencenoun

   perfume; odor; scent; or the volatile matter constituting perfume

7. Essenceverb

   to perfume; to scent

8. Etymology: [F. essence, L. essentia, formed as if fr. a p. pr. of esse to be. See Is, and cf. Entity.]

Freebase(2.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Essence

   In philosophy, essence is the attribute or set of attributes that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity. Essence is contrasted with accident: a property that the entity or substance has contingently, without which the substance can still retain its identity. The concept originates with Aristotle, who used the Greek expression to ti ên einai, literally 'the what it was to be', or sometimes the shorter phrase to ti esti, literally 'the what it is,' for the same idea. This phrase presented such difficulties for his Latin translators that they coined the word essentia to represent the whole expression. For Aristotle and his scholastic followers the notion of essence is closely linked to that of definition. In the history of western thought, essence has often served as a vehicle for doctrines that tend to individuate different forms of existence as well as different identity conditions for objects and properties; in this eminently logical meaning, the concept has given a strong theoretical and common-sense basis to the whole family of logical theories based on the "possible worlds" analogy set up by Leibniz and developed in the intensional logic from Carnap to Kripke, which was later challenged by "extensionalist" philosophers such as Quine.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(5.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Essence

   es′ens, n. the inner distinctive nature of anything: the qualities which make any object what it is: a being: the extracted virtues of any drug: the solution in spirits of wine of a volatile or essential oil: a perfume.—adj. Essen′tial, relating to or containing the essence: necessary to the existence of a thing: indispensable or important in the highest degree: highly rectified: pure.—n. something necessary: a leading principle.—n. Essential′ity, the quality of being essential: an essential part.—adv. Essen′tially.—n. Essen′tialness. [Fr.,—L. essentia—essens, -entis, assumed pr.p. of esse, to be.]

Editors Contribution(5.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. essence

   The just and fair qualities of the universes truth expressed through our body, brain, heart, mind, soul, spirit, subconscious, conscience and consciousness.

   The essence of our soul is the universes truth.

   Submitted by MaryC on March 16, 2020  

Suggested Resources(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. essence

   Song lyrics by essence -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by essence on the Lyrics.com website.

Matched Categories

1. • Meaning
   • Substance
   • Toiletry

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'essence' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4832

2. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'essence' in Nouns Frequency: #1879

Anagrams for essence »

1. senesce

How to pronounce essence?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say essence in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of essence in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of essence in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of essence in a Sentence

1. King Herod:

   In lieu of defeating Israel on the battlefield, the Jihad has initiated a war of delegitimization intended on erasing international support for Israel, in essence it’s a massive smear campaign in which Israel’s ancient history in this land is systematically erased and replaced with an invented Palestinian narrative. The main target of this campaign are young westerners who are simply too ignorant to fight back with facts.

2. Kenneth Tynan:

   At its best drama delightfully informs.. This may be a paraphrase but I think it captures the essence of what he said; provided he did say it and I'm not imagining things.

3. Oprah Winfrey:

   Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus.

4. George Orwell:

   The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals.

5. Prime Minister Andrej Babis:

   I have spoken about the Russian vaccine, and about the Chinese vaccine, with Chancellor Merkel, and the chancellor as well as the Bavarian prime minister are unambiguously calling for this vaccine to be approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), now of course the issue is whether the producer asks for the approval or not, and we of course want to consider, if we get hold of the vaccine, to go the similar way as Hungary did because time is of essence.

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