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.

Noun

(en noun)

Physical matter; material.

* 1699 , , Heads designed for an essay on conversations

Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=Plastics are energy-rich substances , which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.}}

The essential part of anything; the most vital part.

* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Heroic virtue did his actions guide, / And he the substance , not the appearance, chose.

* Bishop Burnet

This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.

* (Edmund Burke) (1729-1797)

It is insolent in words, in manner; but in substance it is not only insulting, but alarming.

Substantiality; solidity; firmness.

Material possessions; estate; property; resources.

* Bible, (w) xv. 13

And there wasted his substance with riotous living.

* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

Thy substance , valued at the highest rate, / Cannot amount unto a hundred marks.

* (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)

We are destroying many thousand lives, and exhausting our substance , but not for our own interest.

Drugs (illegal narcotics)

(theology) Hypostasis.