essence

/\e.sɑ̃s\/ noun

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#2,575

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

5

similar word pairs

essence is aFrenchnoun. It means: Ce qui fait qu’une chose est ce qu’elle est, ce qui constitue la nature d’une chose. Pronounced \e.sɑ̃s\. It ranks #2,575 in French word frequency. Often confused with Essonne and essences.

Key facts for essence
PropertyValue
Headwordessence
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\e.sɑ̃s\
Letters7
Frequency rank#2,575
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of essence in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for essence is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \e.sɑ̃s\. Corpus data places it at rank #2,575 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for essence, with forms such as "esence", "esesnce", and "essecne". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "Essonne", "essences", "Essec", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is essence, spelled E-S-S-E-N-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ce qui fait qu’une chose est ce qu’elle est, ce qui constitue la nature d’une chose.
  2. 2
    Espèce apte à produire du bois.
  3. 3
    Espèce dominante d’une forêt.
  4. 4
    Huile aromatique très subtile qu’on extrait de certaines substances.
  5. 5
    Extrait concentré et épuré de certaines substances.
  6. 6
    Essence de térébenthine.
  7. 7
    Carburant pour moteur à explosion, issu du pétrole raffiné, et généralement opposé au gazole.
  8. 8
    Tout carburant.
  9. 9
    Voiture propulsée par un moteur à essence.
  10. 10
    Par opposition à accident, ce qui constitue la nature permanente d’un être, indépendamment de ce qui lui arrive.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: esence,esesnce,essecne,essencce,essenec,essennce,essnece,sesence

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for essence

Misspelling Variants of "essence"

esence6esesnce7essecne7essencce8essenec7essennce8essnece7sesence7
Misspelling Variants of "essence"

Frequency rank: #2,575 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "essence"?
"essence" is spelled E-S-S-E-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \e.sɑ̃s\.
What does "essence" mean?
As a noun, "essence" means: Ce qui fait qu’une chose est ce qu’elle est, ce qui constitue la nature d’une chose.
What words are commonly confused with "essence"?
"essence" is commonly confused with "Essonne", "essences", "Essec". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "essence"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "essence" is \e.sɑ̃s\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "essence" come from?
"essence" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter E in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.