quintessential
/ˌkwɪntɪˈsɛnʃəl/adjective, noun
quintessential is spelled Q-U-I-N-T-E-S-S-E-N-T-I-A-L. The wrong spelling people search most is quinessential: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 175 of all searches for the word. Quintessential is an adjective meaning “Of the nature of a quintessence (in all senses); being or relating to the ultimate essence of something”.
How many letters and syllables are in quintessential?
| Letters | 14: Q-U-I-N-T-E-S-S-E-N-T-I-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.1 times per million words; the 27,820th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, quinessential, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell quintessential?
Quintessential is spelled Q-U-I-N-T-E-S-S-E-N-T-I-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 174 of the searches for quintessential in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is quintessential?
Quintessential appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,820th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce quintessential?
- /ˌkwɪntɪˈsɛnʃəl/
Quintessential has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-quintessential.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-quintessential.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of quintessential
- more quintessential comparative
- most quintessential superlative
- quintessentials plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does quintessential mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of the nature of a quintessence (in all senses); being or relating to the ultimate essence of something.
noun
- 1
The fundamental essence of something.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Quintessential in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense of the nature of a quintessence:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | quintessentiel |
| German | der Inbegriff des/der..., von Grund auf, durch und durch |
| Portuguese | quintessencial, quinta-essencial |
| Spanish | quintaesencial |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does quintessential come from?
From quintessence + -al.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).