Dictionary (beta)
Back
essence
/(ĕsˈəns)/
Definition by Wordnik
- (noun) The intrinsic or indispensable properties that serve to characterize or identify something.
- (noun) The most important ingredient; the crucial element.
- (noun) The inherent, unchanging nature of a thing or class of things.
- (noun) An extract that has the fundamental properties of a substance in concentrated form.
- (noun) Such an extract in a solution of alcohol.
- (noun) A perfume or scent.
- (noun) One that has or shows an abundance of a quality as if highly concentrated: a neighbor who is the essence of hospitality.
- (noun) Something that exists, especially a spiritual or incorporeal entity.
- (idiom) in essence By nature; essentially: He is in essence a reclusive sort.
- (idiom) of the essence Of the greatest importance; crucial: Time is of the essence.
Example by Wordnik
- The origins of this doctrine lie in Avicenna's account of radical contingency that considers the distinction between Necessary and contingent to lie in the simplicity of existence of the Necessary producing the complexity of the existence and essence of the contingent, where the contingent is an existent to whom accidents pertain bundled in what is known as their ˜essence™. - Mulla Sadra
- It is claimed that a Monotheistic Pantheism, that is, the idea of one essence, not person, but essence, is to unite, or make one, the whole human family upon the scientific (sciolistic) base that man himself is one grand part of the grand all-pervading, impersonal essence. - The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, June, 1880
- So, in essence is Beck is telling us is that Playboy = good, Playgirl = Bad. - Think Progress » Glenn Beck welcomes Scott Brown to Washington: ‘This one could end with a dead intern.’
- Plot, in essence, is the board, or frame, for your story puzzle pieces. - NaNoWriMo Workshop – Plot « Write Anything
- This, in essence, is telling you when it is going to be and everything else. - Barry Toll








