ˈes ə n(t)s noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English essencia, essence, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French essence, from Latin essentia, from esse to be + -ent-, -ens -ent + -ia -y — more at is
1. : a basic underlying or constituting entity, substance, or form: as
a. archaic : element 1a
b.
(1) : the permanent as contrasted with the accidental and variable and hence phenomenal phases or foundation of being : metaphysical substance especially when a substratum that is distinguished from and that supports attributes
(2) : something that constitutes the individual, real, or ultimate nature or kind often as opposed to the existence of a being or thing
a picture of a tree should represent the essence of the tree — its ultimate or basic reality, that which makes it what it is, the thing-in-itself or in its intrinsic nature — Hunter Mead
succeeds in conveying completely the cruel essence of loneliness — Arthur Knight
came to the conclusion that the essence of heat was motion — S.F.Mason
everything that one has seen or heard or thought or felt leaves a deposit that never filters entirely through the essence of mind — Ellen Glasgow
not life in its humdrum, day-by-day existence, but life in its essence , exciting, meaningful, important — L.D.Rubin
also : the property, attribute, or element or totality of properties, attributes, or elements indispensable or necessary to the nature of a thing
what is individual, what is the peculiar essence of the man — T.S.Eliot
the biographical story of its main character, not in the bulk of its million-fold detail but in its essence — Irving Stone
the essence of liberalism — freedom of thought and inquiry, freedom of discussion and criticism — M.R.Cohen
many of our people, … have forgotten the essence of Americanism — George Sokolsky
— see nominal essence , real essence
(3) : an immanent form or metaphysical archetype : an Aristotelian formal cause : a Platonic idea
c.
(1) : the properties or attributes that every member of a species or class of things must necessarily have in order to belong to that species or class
(2) : the totality of those properties or attributes that are indispensable to whatever can be named by a certain term or classified as of a certain class
2. obsolete : distinguishing nature or character
3. : condition or fact of being or existing : existence considered as a property of a thing
4. : something by which another is basically motivated or is maintained or by which it subsists
the enthusiasm of its personnel is the essence and life of any enterprise
criticism that will keep in mind that the essence of a performance is the music as it was written — Saturday Review
the camera work, which is the essence of the coverage … was a brilliant job — Gilbert Seldes
a country where controversy is the essence of politics — Clifton Daniel
the trend toward a herd state of which the essence is the denial of supreme value to the human individual — E.A.Mowrer
the health of our people is the very essence of our vitality, our strength, and our progress as a nation — D.D.Eisenhower
5. : entity ; especially : an abstract entity
the same true characterization which makes each person in the story an essence with whom spectators will identify themselves — Current Biography
own little reviews tranquilly engaged in their endless and placid pursuit of poetry as a timeless essence — William Barrett
6.
a.
(1) : the volatile matter constituting perfume
(2) : perfume , odor , scent
the rice and shrimp in Venice, which breathed with the unmistakable essence of garlic — Horace Sutton
b.
(1) : a volatile spirit (as petroleum spirit or gasoline)
(2) : a substance resembling a volatile spirit
impregnate it with the volatile essence of their souls — J.G.Frazer
c. : aura , cachet
a special essence of authority — S.N.Behrman
captured in words something of the pattern of life, its color or essence — Ernest Beaglehole
the drenched condition of the two women seemed to draw into that little room a desolate melancholy essence composed of fallen leaves, muddy cart ruts, and clammy mist — J.C.Powys
7.
a. : the most significant element, attribute, quality, property, or aspect of a thing
it is the very essence of Machiavelli that in politics there is neither good nor evil, of a moral kind — Irving Kristol
the essence of Scotland — highlands and lowlands, blue lochs and swift brown streams, grouse moors, tidy farmlands and wild sea cliffs — Alice Campbell
specifically : a central focal issue, argument, or point (as in a law case) upon which all other issues, arguments, or points depend or to which they are subordinate
what he could do superbly was to state a case or extract an essence in a few clear and compelling words — R.H.Rovere
appellate argument is the most exacting and concentrated work … for it involves the presentation of the essence of a long trial in an hour or less — A.T.Vanderbilt
the discernment and understanding with which he penetrates to the heart and essence of the problem — Margaret E. Hall
b. : a most significant element, attribute, quality, or property of a thing
speak of his paintings in terms of what they consider his Gallic essences — his sensuousness, his economy in putting his pictures into focus, his infinitely civilized feeling for color and the refinement of line — Janet Flanner
c. : the essential and most characteristic features of a thing
he believes that deceit and mistrust are the essence of human relationships — Bergen Evans
attempts to capture the essence of our twenty-four-dollar island through extreme close-ups of thirty or more representative New York people — James Kelly
managed to combine the essence of jazz, mountain music, and New England church music into one — Saturday Review
d. : center , core , pith
such attention to appearances and details rather than to true substance went to the very essence of the struggle — Time
this takes us to the essence of national strategy — H.H.Arnold & I.C.Eaker
here is the ethical essence of the treaty — the common resolve to preserve, strengthen, and make understood the very basis of tolerance, restraint, and freedom — Dean Acheson
8.
a.
(1) : a substance considered to possess in high degree the predominant qualities or virtues of a plant, drug, or other natural product from which it is extracted (as by distillation or infusion)
(2) : an extract (as from fruit) used as flavoring in cooking
(3) : the concentrated juices of foods obtained in the process of cooking
b.
(1) : essential oil
(2) : an alcoholic solution especially of an essential oil : spirit 21
essence of peppermint
(3) : an artificial preparation (as an alcoholic solution of one or more esters) used especially in flavoring
pineapple essence
(4) : elixir 2
pepsin essence
9. : something that resembles or suggests an extract in possessing the quality, virtue, or value of an original larger substance or thing in concentrated form
it is an essence , a distillation, the very best of all our past reduced, not to a list of physical sights, but to a single emotion — Jerome Weidman
this spot is the heart and essence of the Green mountains — Carl Brandt
the heroine who, in the hands of less eminent novelists, appeared to be the essence of sentimentality — C.W.Cunnington
•
- in essence
- of the essence