Essence is the attribute (or set of attributes) that make an object or substance what it fundamentally is.
Essence may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Television and film
- The Essence, a short film series by Nathaniel Thompson
- "Essence" (The X-Files), a 2001 episode of television show The X-Files
Music
- Essence (John Lewis album), 1962
- Essence (Don Ellis album), 1962
- Essence (Eric Kloss album), 1973
- Essence (Shelly Manne album), 1977
- Essence (A Guy Called Gerald album), 2000
- Essence (Lucinda Williams album), 2001, or the title song
Videogames
- a measure of a living being's lifeforce in the role-playing game Shadowrun
- the mystical force in the pen and paper role-playing game Exalted
Other uses
- Essence (magazine), an African American magazine with a primarily female readership
- Essence (Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics), a United States Department of Defense health-protection initiative
- Essence (yacht), an American yacht sank in a collision with a cargo ship on 29 April 2009
- Essential oil, of a given substance
- Extract, used as a food flavoring
- an OMG standard on software engineering created by the SEMAT initiative