ESSENCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does essence mean? 

• ESSENCE (noun)
  The noun ESSENCE has 4 senses:

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

2. 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. the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work

4. a toiletry that emits and diffuses a fragrant odor

  Familiarity information: ESSENCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ESSENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

center; centre; core; essence; gist; heart; heart and soul; inwardness; kernel; marrow; meat; nitty-gritty; nub; pith; substance; sum

Context example:

the nub of the story

Hypernyms ("essence" is a kind of...):

cognitive content; content; mental object (the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "essence"):

bare bones ((plural) the most basic facts or elements)

hypostasis ((metaphysics) essential nature or underlying reality)

haecceity; quiddity (the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other)

quintessence (the purest and most concentrated essence of something)

stuff (a critically important or characteristic component)

Derivation:

essential (of the greatest importance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("essence" is a kind of...):

substance (the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists)

Derivation:

essential (being or relating to or containing the essence of a plant etc)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

burden; core; effect; essence; gist

Hypernyms ("essence" is a kind of...):

import; meaning; significance; signification (the message that is intended or expressed or signified)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A toiletry that emits and diffuses a fragrant odor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

essence; perfume

Hypernyms ("essence" is a kind of...):

toilet articles; toiletry (artifacts used in making your toilet (washing and taking care of your body))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "essence"):

cologne; cologne water; eau de cologne (a perfumed liquid made of essential oils and alcohol)

pachouli; patchouli; patchouly (a heavy perfume made from the patchouli plant)

perfumery (perfumes in general)

potpourri (a jar of mixed flower petals and spices used as perfume)

rose water (perfume consisting of water scented with oil of roses)

eau de toilette; toilet water (a perfumed liquid lighter than cologne)

 Context examples 

It is loathsome to the life that is in me, the very essence of which is movement, the power of movement, and the consciousness of the power of movement.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Is not general incivility the very essence of love?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Since CH+ forms exclusively in small areas where turbulent motions of gas dissipates, its detection in essence traces energy on a galactic scale.

(ALMA Finds Huge Hidden Reservoirs of Turbulent Gas in Distant Galaxies, ESO)

Time presses, and in our implied agreement with the old scytheman it is of the essence of the contract.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Essential oils contain the natural chemicals that give the plant its “essence” (specific odor and flavor).

(Essential oil, NCI Dictionary)

But our dispute, friend, is concerning the nature of that subtle essence which we call thought.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In essence, this simple differential threshold of neuronal activity in the superior colliculus triggers the animal to report the presence of something in the visual field.

(Researchers discover neural code that predicts behavior, National Institutes of Health)

In essence, we are beginning to link molecular and macroscopic levels of analysis to better understand the diversity and complexity of autism.

(Scientists link genes to brain anatomy in autism, University of Cambridge)

Remarkably, DFT1 cells can escape the devils’ immune systems despite being in essence a foreign body.

(Human anti-cancer drugs could help treat transmissible cancers in Tasmanian devils, University of Cambridge)

Something there was of Napoleon III., something of Don Quixote, and yet again something which was the essence of the English country gentleman, the keen, alert, open-air lover of dogs and of horses.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)