different between essence vs essential

English

Etymology

From French essence, from Latin essentia (“the being or essence of a thing”), from an artificial formation of esse (“to be”), to translate Ancient Greek ????? (ousía, “being”), from ?? (?n), present participle of ???? (eimí, “I am, exist”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??s?ns/

Noun

essence (countable and uncountable, plural essences)

2. The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
   • 1713 September 21, Joseph Addison, The Guardian, collected in The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, volume IV, Birmingham: John Baskerville, published 1761, page 263:

     CHARITY is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands, ?ays an old writer. Gifts and alms are the expre??ions, not the e??ence of this virtue.
3. (philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
4. Constituent substance.
5. A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
6. A significant feature of something.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

7. The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.

8. An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring.

9. Fragrance, a perfume.

Synonyms

• (inherent nature): quintessence, whatness; See also Thesaurus:essence
• (significant feature): gist, crux; See also Thesaurus:gist
• (fragrance): aroma, bouquet; See also Thesaurus:aroma

Derived terms

• in essence
• of the essence; time is of the essence

Related terms

• essential
• essentially
• essentialism
• quintessential

Translations

Further reading

• essence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• essence in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• senesce

French

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin essentia. Sense 2 very likely from Latin ed? (“eat”), in the sense of 'what is eaten, fuel'. Many forms of the latter are indistinguishable from the former, and so the confusion with essence is very understandable.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.s??s/, /?.s??s/

Noun

essence f (plural essences)

1. (philosophy, theology) essence
2. petrol, gasoline
3. essence, essential oil

Derived terms

• poste d'essence
• station essence

Further reading

• “essence” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• censées

English

Alternative forms

• essentiall (obsolete)

Etymology

From Late Latin essenti?lis, from Latin essentia (“being, essence”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??s?n.??l/, [??s?n.t??l]
• Hyphenation: es?sen?tial

Adjective

essential (comparative more essential, superlative most essential)

1. Necessary.

   Synonyms: indispensable; see also Thesaurus:requisite

   Antonyms: accidental, accessorial, incidental, unnecessary, unneeded
2. Very important; of high importance.

   Synonyms: crucial; see also Thesaurus:important

   Antonyms: unimportant; see also Thesaurus:insignificant
3. (biology) necessary for survival but not synthesized by the organism, thus needing to be ingested
4. Being in the basic form; showing its essence.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:intrinsic, Thesaurus:bare-bones

   Antonyms: adscititious; see also Thesaurus:extrinsic

5. Really existing; existent.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:existent

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:inexistent
6. (geometry) Such that each complementary region is irreducible, the boundary of each complementary region is incompressible by disks and monogons in the complementary region, and no leaf is a sphere or a torus bounding a solid torus in the manifold.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

7. (medicine) Idiopathic.
8. Having the nature of essence; not physical.

Antonyms

• inessential, unessential, non-essential, nonessential

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

essential (plural essentials)

1. A necessary ingredient.
2. A fundamental ingredient.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Related terms

• essence

Translations

Further reading

• essential on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• siletanes