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essence

Pronunciation: /ˈɛsəns/

The English word “essence” has 8 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
  2. The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
  3. Constituent substance.
  4. A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
  5. A significant feature of something.
  6. The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through an extraction or distillation process.
  7. An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring, or as a restorative.
  8. Fragrance, a perfume.

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").

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.