Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Quintessence |
QuintessenceNoun1. (archaic) the fifth and highest element after air and earth and fire and water; was believed to be the substance composing all heavenly bodies. 2. The purest and most concentrated essence of something. 3. The most typical example or representative of a type. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "quintessence" was first used: sometime around 1435. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Quintessence The fifth essence. The ancient Greeks said there are four elements or forms in which matter can exist- fire, or the imponderable form; air, or the gaseous form; water, or the liquid form; and earth, or the solid form. The Pythagoreans added a fifth, which they called ether, more subtile and pure than fire, and possessed of an orbicular motion. This element, which flew upwards at creation, and out of which the stars were made, was called the fifth essence; quintessence therefore means the most subtile extract of a body that can be procured. It is quite an error to suppose that the word means an essence five times distilled, and that the term came from the alchemists. Horace speaks of "kisses which Venus has imbued with the quintessence of her own nectar." "Swift to their several quarters hasted then The cumbrous elements- earth, flood, air, fire; But this ethereal quintessence of heaven Flew upward ... and turned to stars Numberless as thou seest." Milton: Paradise Lost, iii. 716. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Quintessence is a hypothetical form of energy postulated to exist in order to explain observations of an accelerating universe. This vacuum energy would act like a vacuum pressure, pushing things apart. Other attempts to explain these recent observations involve a non-zero cosmological constant, which has the same effect. Indeed, sometimes quintessence is said to result in a non-zero cosmological constant, and conversely a non-zero cosmological constant describes the effects of quintessence. Quintessence differs from dark energy in that it does not have a constant energy.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Quintessence."
Synonym: QuintessenceSynonym: ether (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Intrinsicality | Noun: intrinsicality, inbeing, inherence, inhesion; subjectiveness; ego; egohood; essence, noumenon; essentialness; Adjective: essential part, quintessence, incarnation, quiddity, gist, pith, marrow, core, sap, lifeblood, backbone, heart, soul; important part; (importance). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Quintessence |
| Specialty definitions using "quintessence": Alcofribas ♦ Queen Quintessence ♦ Satan's Journey to Earth. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Quintessence" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. French (quintessence). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust. (Hamlet; writing credit: William Shakespeare; Kenneth Branagh) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Periodicals |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | There was the essence and the quintessence of Parisian Legitimatist society. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Quintessence" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Quintessence" is used about 29 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 29 | 64,444 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
quintessence | 56 |
quintessence restaurant | 6 |
quintessence perfume | 5 |
publishing quintessence | 5 |
book quintessence | 5 |
international quintessence | 4 |
quintessence day spa | 4 |
hotel quintessence | 3 |
quintessence spa | 2 |
audio quintessence | 2 |
quintessence record | 2 |
ibsenism quintessence | 2 |
editora quintessence | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "quintessence"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | kuintesencë. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مثال (copy, epitome, example, exemplar, ideal, image, model, paradigm, pattern, picture, specimen, symbol, type), لباب كتاب, زبدة (butter, choice, fat, gist, shortening, upshot), عنصر خامس, خلاصة (abstract, docket, epitome, essence, extract, extraction, gist, outline, pith, precis, recap, recapitulation, resume, substance, summary, summation), جوهر (core, effect, essence, essential nature, gist, immanence, matter, pith, principle, quiddity, root, soul, substance, taproot). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | квинтесенция. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | ztìlesnìní (embodiment, epitome, impersonation, incarnation), podstata (bedrock, being, essence, essentiality, gist, guts, kernel, marrow, meat, nub, nubble, pith, principle, spirit, substance, substantiality), kvintesence, jádro (bedrock, core, essence, guts, inside, kernel, marrow, meat, nub, nubble, nucleus, pip, pith, seed, stone, substance). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | پنجمین وبالاترین عنصروجود, عنصرپنجم یعنی 'اثیر'یا'اتر', جوهر (Acid, Heart, Ink, Juice, Marrow), اصل (Element, Genuine, Germ, Inception, Maxim, Mother, Motif, Paternity, Point, Principle, Provenance, Real, Root, Stem, Strain). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | quintessence. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Quintessenz (absolute), Kern (center, centre, core, crux, essence, gist, gut, heart, heartwood, kernel, marrow, nub, nucleus, pip, pit, pith, seed, stone). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | πεμπτουσία (absolute). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | תמצית (abstract, decoction, digest, epitome, essence, gist, heart, marrow, outline, pith, sap, summary, syllabus, synopsis), עקר (barren, basis, crux, doctrine, dogma, essence, foundation, futile, gist, impotent, infertile, main, nub, origin, pith, principle, root, sterile, substance, tenet). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | eszencia (essence, extract), tömény párlat, netovábbja vminek (pink of sg), kvinteszencia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | saripati (pith). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | quintessenza (epitome). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 心髄 (core, essence, kernel, life blood, mystery, soul, true meaning). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | し"ずい (core, essence, kernel, life blood, mystery, soul, true meaning). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | bun as bree (original intention, spirit). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | intessencequay quintessência. (various references) esenţã (base, being, bottom, content, core, cream, essence, essential, extract, gist, kernel, kind, marrow, materiality, meat, pith, quiddity, substance, sum), chintesenţã. (various references) квинтэссенция. (various references) suština (being, bottom, essence, essentiality, gist, habitude, heart, inwardness, marrow, matter of fact, nub, pith, quiddity, self, soul, substance, substantiality, vitals), kvintesencija. (various references) quintaesencia (it). (various references) kvintessens, kärnan. (various references) en özlü kısım, özetin özeti, özünün özü, öz (compact, compendious, content, core, cream, distillate, distillation, elixir, entity, epitome, essence, essential oil, extract, extraction, full, genuine, gist, goodness, guts, heartbeat, kernel, marrow, matter, meat, medulla, nucleus, own, pith, pith and marrow, pulp, quick, quiddity, self, soul, stuff, substance, substantiality, substratum, sum, whole). (various references) суть (alcohol, backbone, content, core, entity, essence, essential, existence, gist, hinge, inwardness, juice, kernel, marrow, marrowbone, matter, nature, net, nub, pith, point, quid, quiddity, self, soul, spirit, substance), квінтесенція (alcohol, it), основний (basal, base, basic, basilar, capital, central, chief, first, foremost, fundamental, key, main, master, organic, primary, primitive, principal, radical, staple, substantial, ultimate, underlying), найістотніший (basic). (various references) tinh tuý (cream), tinh chất. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | medulla, medullam, medullarum, medullata, medullis. (various references) |
| Medieval Latin | 700-1500 | quinta essentia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "quintessence": quintessences. (additional references) | |
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"Quintessence" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: quintescene, quintessance, quinyessence. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "quintessence" (pronounced kwi'nte"suns) |
| 5 | -e" s u n s | acquiescence, adolescence, convalescence, essence, evanescence, luminescence, obsolescence, phosphorescence, senescence. |
| 4 | -s u n s | absence, beneficence, innocence, licence, license, nuisance, reconnaissance, reminiscence, reticence. |
| 3 | -u n s | abeyance, abhorrence, abstinence, abundance, acceptance, accordance, acquaintance, adherence, admirations, admittance, affluence, allegiance, alliance, allowance, ambiance, ambience, ambivalence, ambulance, annoyance, appearance, appliance, arrogance, ascendance, assistance, assurance, attendance, audience, avoidance, balance, belligerence, benevolence, bioscience, brilliance, cadence, capacitance, chrominance, circumference, clairvoyance, Clarence, clearance, coexistence, cognizance, coherence, coincidence, coinsurance, comeuppance, competence, compliance, concurrence, condolence, conference, confidence, confluence, conformance, congruence, connivance, conscience, consequence, consistence, continuance, contrivance, convenience, convergence, conveyance, correspondence, countenance, counterbalance, counterintelligence, credence, dalliance, decadence, Defeasance, deference, defiance, deliverance, dependence, deterrence, deviance, difference, diligence, disallowance, disappearance, discontinuance, disobedience, dissidence, dissonance, distance, disturbance, divergence, dominance, ebullience, elegance, eloquence, emergence, eminence, endurance, entrance, equivalence, evidence, excellence, existence, expedience, experience, extravagance, exuberance, flamboyance, Florence, forbearance, fragrance, furtherance, governance, grievance, guidance, hindrance, ignorance, imbalance, immanence, imminence, impatience, impedance, importance, impotence, imprudence, inadvertence, incidence, incoherence, incompetence, incontinence, inconvenience, independence, indifference, inductance, indulgence, inexperience, inference, influence, inheritance, insignificance, insistence, insolence, instance, insurance, intelligence, interdependence, interference, intolerance, intransigence, invariance, irrelevance, irreverence, issuance, jurisprudence, luminance, maintenance, malfeasance, negligence, neuroscience, noncompliance, noninterference, nonviolence, obedience, observance, occurrence, omnipotence, omnipresence, opulence, ordinance, Ordnance, overabundance, overconfidence, overdependence, overreliance, parlance, patience, penance, performance, permanence, persecutions, perseverance, persistence, pestilence, petulance, pittance, precedence, predominance, preeminence, preference, preponderance, prescience, presence, prevalence, prominence, protuberance, provenance, Providence, province, prudence, pseudoscience, radiance, reappearance, reassurance, recalcitrance, recognizance, recurrence, reemergence, reference, reinspections, reinsurance, relevance, reliance, reluctance, remembrance, remittance, repentance, resemblance, residence, resilience, resistance, resonance, resurgence, reverence, riddance, science, semblance, sentence, sequence, severance, significance, silence, submergence, subservience, subsidence, subsistence, substance, surveillance, sustenance, teleconference, temperance, tolerance, transcendence, transference, transience, turbulence, unbalance, utterance, Valence, variance, vehemence, vengeance, videoconference, vigilance, violence, virulence. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-e-e-i-n-n-q-s-s-t-u" | |
-2 letters: sentiences, sequencies. | |
-3 letters: enceintes, nescients, quiescent, quietness, senescent, sentences, sentience, sequences. | |
-4 letters: centeses, centesis, cuteness, enceinte, incenses, inquests, nescient, niceness, quietens, sentence, sequence, sequents, sunniest, tennises. | |
-5 letters: cinques, cutesie, cutises, entices, equines, equites, essence, ictuses, incense, incests, incuses, inquest, insects, intense, quieten, quinces, quintes, sennets, sennits, sequent, sequins, sestine, squints, tennies, tunnies. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-e-e-i-n-n-q-s-s-t-u" | |
+1 letter: quintessences. | |
+3 letters: sesquicentenary. | |
+4 letters: sesquicentennial. | |
+5 letters: consequentialness, sesquicentenaries, sesquicentennials. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
