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essence has 17 distinct synonyms spread across 3 of its 4 senses. Each sense below keeps its own list, because a synonym belongs to a meaning and not to a word: swapping one sense's substitute into another sense's sentence is how a thesaurus makes writing worse. WordNet records no antonym for it — antonymy is a relation between word forms rather than concepts, so it is deliberately sparse.
Counts are distinct word forms across every sense. A synonym that appears under three senses is counted once here and shown three times below, under each sense it belongs to.
the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
“the gist of the prosecutor's argument”
any substance possessing to a high degree the predominant properties of a plant or drug or other natural product from which it is extracted
Synonyms, antonyms and the broader and narrower relations for essence come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Full sources and licences.