quintessência
Portuguese, noun
quintessência is spelled Q-U-I-N-T-E-S-S-Ê-N-C-I-A (13 letters) and appears about once in every 6 million words in written Portuguese, the 79,437th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Quintessência is a Portuguese feminine noun meaning “quintessence” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). Without its accent, quintessencia is a different word: “third-person singular present indicative”. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “segundo Aristótoles, o quinto elemento do qual seria composto o universo; substância etérea que permearia o…”.
What does quintessência mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininequintessence
verb
- 1
third-person singular present indicative
- 2
second-person singular imperative
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
noun: 1. segundo Aristótoles, o quinto elemento do qual seria composto o universo; substância etérea que permearia o cosmo 2. essência da qual seriam compostos os espíritos
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of quintessência
- quintessências plural
- quinta-essência alternative
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to quintessência
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is quintessência in Portuguese?
quintessência appears about once in every 6 million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).