essence
noun
Simple meaning
The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehsuhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛsəns
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring, or as a restorative.
A significant feature of something.
Any substance possessing to a high degree the predominant properties of a plant or drug or other natural product from which it is extracted
The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.
Constituent substance.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
Used this way, essence is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
With regard to fundamentals although not concerning details.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.