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Essence vs. Sense — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Essence and Sense

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Definitions

Essence

Essence (Latin: essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity. Essence is contrasted with accident: a property that the entity or substance has contingently, without which the substance can still retain its identity.

Sense

A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world and responding to stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain receives signals from the senses, which continuously receive information from the environment, interprets these signals, and causes the body to respond, either chemically or physically.) Although traditionally around five human senses were known (namely sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing), it is now recognized that there are many more.

Essence

The intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something abstract, which determines its character
Conflict is the essence of drama

Sense

A faculty by which the body perceives an external stimulus; one of the faculties of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch
The bear has a keen sense of smell which enables it to hunt at dusk

Essence

An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter and used for flavouring or scent
Vanilla essence
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Sense

A feeling that something is the case
She had the sense of being a political outsider
You can improve your general health and sense of well-being

Essence

The intrinsic or indispensable quality or qualities that serve to characterize or identify something
The essence of democracy is the freedom to choose.

Sense

A sane and realistic attitude to situations and problems
He earned respect by the good sense he showed at meetings

Essence

(Philosophy) The inherent, unchanging nature of a thing or class of things, especially as contrasted with its existence.

Sense

A way in which an expression or a situation can be interpreted; a meaning
It is not clear which sense of the word ‘characters’ is intended in this passage
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Essence

The most important part or aspect of something
The essence of her argument is that the policy is wrongheaded.

Sense

A property (e.g. direction of motion) distinguishing a pair of objects, quantities, effects, etc. which differ only in that each is the reverse of the other
The cord does not become straight, but forms a length of helix in the opposite sense

Essence

An extract that has the fundamental properties of a substance in concentrated form.

Sense

Perceive by a sense or senses
With the first frost, they could sense a change in the days

Essence

Such an extract in a solution of alcohol.

Sense

(of a machine or similar device) detect
An optical fibre senses a current flowing in a conductor

Essence

A perfume or scent.

Sense

Any of the faculties by which stimuli from outside or inside the body are received and felt, as the faculties of hearing, sight, smell, touch, taste, and equilibrium.

Essence

One that has or shows an abundance of a quality as if highly concentrated
A neighbor who is the essence of hospitality.

Sense

A perception or feeling produced by a stimulus; sensation
A sense of fatigue and hunger.

Essence

Something that exists, especially a spiritual or incorporeal entity.

Sense

Senses The faculties of sensation as means of providing physical gratification and pleasure.

Essence

The inherent nature of a thing or idea.

Sense

An intuitive or acquired perception or ability to estimate
A sense of diplomatic timing.

Essence

(philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.

Sense

A capacity to appreciate or understand
A keen sense of humor.

Essence

Constituent substance.

Sense

A vague feeling or presentiment
A sense of impending doom.

Essence

A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.

Sense

Recognition or perception either through the senses or through the intellect; consciousness
Has no sense of shame.

Essence

A significant feature of something.

Sense

Natural understanding or intelligence, especially in practical matters
The boy had sense and knew just what to do when he got lost.

Essence

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

Sense

Often senses The normal ability to think or reason soundly
Have you taken leave of your senses?.

Essence

An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring, or as a restorative.
Vanilla essence

Sense

Something sound or reasonable
There's no sense in waiting three hours.

Essence

Fragrance, a perfume.

Sense

A meaning that is conveyed, as in speech or writing; signification
The sense of the criticism is that the proposal has certain risks.

Essence

The constituent elementary notions which constitute a complex notion, and must be enumerated to define it; sometimes called the nominal essence.

Sense

One of the meanings of a word or phrase
The word set has many senses.

Essence

The constituent quality or qualities which belong to any object, or class of objects, or on which they depend for being what they are (distinguished as real essence); the real being, divested of all logical accidents; that quality which constitutes or marks the true nature of anything; distinctive character; hence, virtue or quality of a thing, separated from its grosser parts.
The laws are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labors under.
Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence of this virtue [charity].
The essence of Addison's humor is irony.

Sense

Judgment; consensus
Sounding out the sense of the electorate on capital punishment.

Essence

Constituent substance.
And uncompounded is their essence pure.

Sense

Intellectual interpretation, as of the significance of an event or the conclusions reached by a group
I came away from the meeting with the sense that we had resolved all outstanding issues.

Essence

A being; esp., a purely spiritual being.
As far as gods and heavenly essencesCan perish.
He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences, until . . . he had and ideal world of his own around him.

Sense

To become aware of; perceive
Organisms able to sense their surroundings.

Essence

The predominant qualities or virtues of a plant or drug, extracted and refined from grosser matter; or, more strictly, the solution in spirits of wine of a volatile or essential oil; as, the essence of mint, and the like.
The . . . word essence . . . scarcely underwent a more complete transformation when from being the abstract of the verb "to be," it came to denote something sufficiently concrete to be inclosed in a glass bottle.

Sense

To grasp; understand
Sensed that the financial situation would improve.

Essence

Perfume; odor; scent; or the volatile matter constituting perfume.
Nor let the essences exhale.

Sense

To detect automatically
Sense radioactivity.

Essence

To perfume; to scent.

Sense

(Genetics) Of or relating to the portion of the strand of double-stranded DNA that serves as a template for and is transcribed into RNA.

Essence

The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience;
The gist of the prosecutor's argument
The heart and soul of the Republican Party
The nub of the story

Sense

Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.

Essence

Any substance possessing to a high degree the predominant properties of a plant or drug or other natural product from which it is extracted

Sense

Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.
A sense of security

Essence

The central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work

Sense

Sound practical or moral judgment.
It's common sense not to put metal objects in a microwave oven.

Essence

A toiletry that emits and diffuses a fragrant odor

Sense

The meaning, reason, or value of something.
You don’t make any sense.

Sense

Any particular meaning of a word, among its various meanings.
Word sense disambiguation
The true sense of words or phrases

Sense

A natural appreciation or ability.
A keen musical sense

Sense

(pragmatics) The way that a referent is presented.

Sense

(semantics) A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries for a word in a dictionary.
The word set has various senses.

Sense

(mathematics) One of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See also polarity.

Sense

(mathematics) One of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise.

Sense

(biochemistry) referring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product.

Sense

To use biological senses: to either see, hear, smell, taste, or feel.

Sense

To instinctively be aware.
She immediately sensed her disdain.

Sense

To comprehend.

Sense

A faculty, possessed by animals, of perceiving external objects by means of impressions made upon certain organs (sensory or sense organs) of the body, or of perceiving changes in the condition of the body; as, the senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. See Muscular sense, under Muscular, and Temperature sense, under Temperature.
Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep.
What surmounts the reachOf human sense I shall delineate.
The traitor Sense recallsThe soaring soul from rest.

Sense

Perception by the sensory organs of the body; sensation; sensibility; feeling.
In a living creature, though never so great, the sense and the affects of any one part of the body instantly make a transcursion through the whole.

Sense

Perception through the intellect; apprehension; recognition; understanding; discernment; appreciation.
This Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover.
High disdain from sense of injured merit.

Sense

Sound perception and reasoning; correct judgment; good mental capacity; understanding; also, that which is sound, true, or reasonable; rational meaning.
He raves; his words are looseAs heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense.

Sense

That which is felt or is held as a sentiment, view, or opinion; judgment; notion; opinion.
I speak my private but impartial senseWith freedom.
The municipal council of the city had ceased to speak the sense of the citizens.

Sense

Meaning; import; signification; as, the true sense of words or phrases; the sense of a remark.
So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense.
I think 't was in another sense.

Sense

Moral perception or appreciation.
Some are so hardened in wickedness as to have no sense of the most friendly offices.

Sense

One of two opposite directions in which a line, surface, or volume, may be supposed to be described by the motion of a point, line, or surface.

Sense

To perceive by the senses; to recognize.
Is he sure that objects are not otherwise sensed by others than they are by him?

Sense

A general conscious awareness;
A sense of security
A sense of happiness
A sense of danger
A sense of self

Sense

The meaning of a word or expression; the way in which a word or expression or situation can be interpreted;
The dictionary gave several senses for the word
In the best sense charity is really a duty
The signifier is linked to the signified

Sense

The faculty through which the external world is apprehended;
In the dark he had to depend on touch and on his senses of smell and hearing

Sense

Sound practical judgment;
I can't see the sense in doing it now
He hasn't got the sense God gave little green apples
Fortunately she had the good sense to run away

Sense

A natural appreciation or ability;
A keen musical sense
A good sense of timing

Sense

Perceive by a physical sensation, e.g., coming from the skin or muscles;
He felt the wind
She felt an object brushing her arm
He felt his flesh crawl
She felt the heat when she got out of the car

Sense

Detect some circumstance or entity automatically;
This robot can sense the presence of people in the room
Particle detectors sense ionization

Sense

Become aware of not through the senses but instinctively;
I sense his hostility

Sense

Comprehend;
I sensed the real meaning of his letter

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