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Synonyms

in essence

Idioms  

  1. Basically, by nature, as in He is in essence a very private person or In essence, they were asking the wrong question. This term employs essence in the sense of “intrinsic nature,” a usage dating from the mid-1600s.

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.

UTLA: The district has offered, in essence, an 8% raise over two years, structured in different ways.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 19, 2026

Nvidia has been paying a success tax, in essence.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 4, 2026

“This is in essence a scarlet-letter designation for Anthropic that puts this AI stalwart in the same category as the Chinese tech player Huawei in the U.S.,”

From MarketWatch • Mar. 1, 2026

What, in essence, is the job of a racing driver?

From BBC • Feb. 26, 2026

A refutation of this argument, in essence, can be found in Cicero, although of course without either typewriters or Shakespeare.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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.