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

See Examples For:

in essence

They each contacted Boyagoda midway through to say, in essence, “You nailed it.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

But in essence, California is about the idea that the coast is not owned by anyone, it’s owned by everyone.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

Druckenmiller’s opposition to Treasury policy in essence boils down to Margaret Thatcher’s famous dictum: “You cannot buck the market.”

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

“I’ve always associated horror with summertime, actually. Like ‘Friday the 13th,’ ‘Sleepaway Camp’” — in essence, the freedom of summer invaded by fear and death.

From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026

Were the Ptolemies in essence colonial occupiers and exploiters, bent on wringing the last drachma and obol from a captive land regardless of the consequences?

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

Related Words

• actually
• approximately
• necessarily
• originally
• permanently
• quite
• really
• substantially
• truly
• typically
• virtually