essence
/ˈɛsəns/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.03 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through an extraction or distillation process.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring, or as a restorative.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "CHARITY is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands, ſays an old writer. Gifts and alms are the expreſſions, not the eſſence of this virtue."
- "They [the laws] are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labours under ; the scorn of the wicked, the consternation of the good, the refuge of those who violate, and the ruin of those who appeal to them."
- "The essence of Addison’s humour is irony."
- "It may be that a free society as we have known it carries in itself the forces of its own destruction, that once freedom has been achieved it is taken for granted and ceases to be valued, and that the free growth of ideas which is the essence of a free society will bring about the destruction of the foundations on which it depends."
- "For Spirits when they pleaſe / Can either Sex aſſume, or both ; ſo ſoft / And uncompounded is their Eſſence pure, / Not ti’d or manacl’d with joynt or limb, / Nor founded on the brittle ſtrength of bones, / Like cumbrous fleſh[…]"
- "And put to proof his high Supremacy, / Whether upheld by ſtrength, or Chance, or Fate, / Too well I ſee and rue the dire event, / That with ſad overthrow and foul defeat / Hath loſt us Heav’n, and all this mighty Hoſt / In horrible deſtruction laid thus low, / As far as Gods and Heav’nly Eſſences / Can Periſh."
Etymology
From Middle English essence, from Middle French essence, from Latin essentia (“the being or essence of a thing”), from an artificial formation of esse (“to be”), to translate Ancient Greek οὐσία (ousía, “being”), from ὤν (ṓn), present participle of εἰμί (eimí, “to be, exist”). Displaced native Old English understandennes (literally, "understanden-ness").
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₁es-, essence, essentia, οὐσία