MEANING
1. To identify or present the qualities treated as fundamental to something’s nature.
2. To treat members of a group as sharing fixed, defining qualities.
Use it for
distilling the defining features of a subject; describing an attempt to capture a person’s essence; reducing a complex problem to its central characteristicsDistinguishes selecting defining qualities from the criticized practice of treating a diverse group as having a fixed nature. Writing functions: Analysis / Interpretation, Theory / Conceptual Language, Qualification / Uncertainty.
Words that belong together
- essentialize a subject
- essentialize a problem
- essentialize an experience
On the page
The portrait tries to essentialize its subject through a single habitual gesture.
A short case summary may essentialize a problem before the full analysis begins.
The argument essentializes rural voters by treating a varied population as a single personality.
Her analysis rejects accounts that essentialize care as an inherently female capacity.
Word forms
- Base
- essentialize
- Past tense
- essentialized
- Past participle
- essentialized
- Present participle
- essentializing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- essentialize
- Present continuous
- am/is/are essentializing
- Present perfect
- have/has essentialized
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been essentializing
- Past
- essentialized
- Past continuous
- was/were essentializing
- Past perfect
- had essentialized
- Past perfect continuous
- had been essentializing
- Future
- will essentialize
- Future continuous
- will be essentializing
- Future perfect
- will have essentialized
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been essentializing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Transitive verb: essentialize; essentializes; essentialized; essentialized; essentializing. Future: will essentialize. UK variant: essentialise, not a separate entry. Register: formal. Commonness: uncommon (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
Keep a thought for later. Sign in to save privately.