ens
noun
an existing or real thing; an entity.
ens
1 American
[enz, ens]
/ ɛnz, ɛns /
noun
Metaphysics.
-
entia
plural
Ens.
2
American
abbreviation
ens
1
British
/ ɛnz /
noun
-
being or existence in the most general abstract sense
-
a real thing, esp as opposed to an attribute; entity
Ens.
2
British
abbreviation
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ens
< Latin ēns, present participle of esse to be
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But what most threat ens the regime is the squandered reserves of good will among millions of Chinese who had been impressed by the Communists' display of strength, incorruptibility and iron discipline.
From Time Magazine Archive
The upshot is a crisis in confidence and leadership so severe that it threat ens to impair the conduct and prestige of the presidency.
From Time Magazine Archive
"There hasn't been a good travel book about America since Dick ens," said he.
From Time Magazine Archive
The pincers movement converging on Kharkov threat ens the German-occupied Donets basin, most valuable prize of the Nazis in Russia.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Oh, no one,” I say casually, keeping my gaze on the chick- ens.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
This termination answers to the Latin antia or entia, and the English ance or ence.
From A Handbook of the Cornish Language chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature by Henry Jenner
And their objects, the modes and mutual relations of our primae intentiones or direct concepts, are called entia rationis—logical entities.
From Ontology or the Theory of Being by Peter Coffey
Purely logical distinctions are therefore seen to be a class of purely logical relations, i.e. of those entia rationis which the mind must construct for itself in its effort to understand the real.
From Ontology or the Theory of Being by Peter Coffey
They are positively intelligible as capable of actual existence, and therefore as distinct from logical entities or entia rationis which are not capable of such existence.
From Ontology or the Theory of Being by Peter Coffey
It follows, then, that some entia realissima are absolutely necessary beings.
From The Critique of Pure Reason by John Miller Dow Meiklejohn
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
