The most perfect or typical example of a quality or class.
She is the quintessence of elegance and grace.
The aspect of something regarded as the intrinsic and central constituent of its character.
The quintessence of the novel is its exploration of human nature.
In ancient and medieval philosophy, a fifth substance in addition to the four elements, thought to compose the heavenly bodies and to be latent in all things.
Alchemists believed that quintessence was the purest form of matter.
In modern cosmology, a hypothetical form of dark energy postulated as a dynamic, spatially inhomogeneous component driving the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Some theories propose quintessence as an explanation for the universe's accelerating expansion.
A concentrated extract containing the essential properties of a substance; an essence.
The perfumer distilled the quintessence of rose petals for the fragrance.
