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What is the difference between essence and essential?

essence | essential | Related terms |

Essential is a related term of essence.



As nouns the difference between essence and essential

is that essence is (inherent nature)The inherent nature of a thing or idea while essential is a necessary ingredient.

As an adjective essential is

necessary.

essence

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (senseid)The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
  • * Landor
  • The laws are at present, both in form and essence , the greatest curse that society labours under.
  • * Addison
  • Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence of this virtue [charity].
  • * Courthorpe
  • The essence of Addison's humour is irony.
  • (philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
  • Constituent substance.
  • * Milton
  • Uncompounded is their essence pure.
  • A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
  • * Milton
  • As far as gods and heavenly essences / Can perish.
  • * Washington Irving
  • He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences , until he had an ideal world of his own around him.
  • A significant feature of something.
  • The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.
  • * essence of Jojoba
  • Fragrance, a perfume.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Nor let the essences exhale.

    Derived terms

    * in essence * of the essence; time is of the essence

    Anagrams

    * ----

    essential

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Necessary.
  • Very important; of high importance.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17
  • , author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot , title=Money just makes the rich suffer , volume=188, issue=23, page=19 , magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) citation , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax. […]}}
  • Being in the basic form; showing its essence.
  • Don’t mind him being grumpy. That’s the essential Fred.
  • Really existing; existent.
  • * Webster (1623)
  • Is it true, that thou art but a name, / And no essential thing?
  • 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.
  • (medicine) Idiopathic.
  • Synonyms

    * indispensable, crucial, substantive * See also

    Antonyms

    * inessential, unessential, accidental, nonessential, unneeded, adscititious, unimportant, accessorial, unnecessary, incidental

    Derived terms

    * essential amino acid * essential fatty acid * essential listening * essential nutrient * essential oil * essentially * essentialness * quintessential

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A necessary ingredient.
  • A fundamental ingredient.