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View synonyms for quintessential

quintessential

[ kwin-tuh-sen-shuhl ]

adjective

  1. of the pure and essential essence of something:

    the quintessential Jewish delicatessen.

  2. of or relating to the most perfect embodiment of something:

    the quintessential performance of the Brandenburg Concertos.



quintessential

/ ˌkwɪntɪˈsɛnʃəl /

adjective

  1. most typically representative of a quality, state, etc; perfect


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Derived Forms

  • ˌquintesˈsentially, adverb

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Other Words From

  • quintes·sential·ly adverb

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Word History and Origins

Origin of quintessential1

First recorded in 1545–55; quintessence ( def ) + -ial ( def ), on the pattern of essential ( def )

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Example Sentences

Ignoring people you hooked up with at Shooters when encountering them on campus is a quintessential Duke experience.

But in reality he is the quintessential example of how Washington corrupts.

Santorini is an island of churches: nearly 400 of them, many topped with the quintessential blue dome.

No wonder that of all the Bradys, it is the quintessential old maid who we miss the most.

What, in your view, makes a quintessential Sony Classics release?

If you really represented the country in its government, would you not get its partisanship in a quintessential form?

He had a delicacy, when he chose to be delicate, which is quintessential, and a vigour which is thoroughly manly.

Such pain, such pleasure, is the quintessential attenuated "matter" with which our soul clothes itself.

This good man Osborn, whom I have never seen or heard of before, seems to be quintessential of all that side.

Does not this, indeed, form the very quintessential attribute of good government?

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quintessencequintet