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Essence vs Theme - What's the difference?

essence | theme |

As nouns the difference between essence and theme

is that essence is (inherent nature)The inherent nature of a thing or idea while theme is a subject of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.

As a verb theme is

to apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance and/or layout of (software).

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

    Related terms

    * essential * essentialism * quintessential

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    theme

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A subject of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
  • A recurring idea; a motif.
  • (music) The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
  • (film, television) A song, or a snippet of a song, that identifies a film, a TV program, a character, etc. by playing at the appropriate time.
  • (computing, figuratively) The collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc., that "skin" an environment towards a particular motif.
  • (grammar) The stem of a word
  • (linguistics) thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb
  • (linguistics) Theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.
  • (linguistics) Topic, what is generally being talked about, as opposed to rheme
  • A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.

    • Related terms

    * thema * thematic * theme music * theme park * theme song * theme tune

    Verb

    (them)
  • (computing) To apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance and/or layout of (software).