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LATIN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ens.

being; something having esse/existence; (basic concept of St. Thomas Aquinas);

3 characters1 syllables approx.Latina language

Meaning & usage

noun[ˈẽːs]Classical-Latin[ˈɛns]

  1. being

    Medieval-Latin · declension-3

  2. essence

    declension-3

  3. existence

    declension-3
Where this word comes from

Formed as a present participle of sum (“to be”) in Medieval Latin (and therefore unknown in the Classical period) by using the bare present participial ending -ēns of second and third conjugation verbs, as an analogy to the Ancient Greek present participle ὤν (ṓn) which falsely appears to be the same bare suffix but etymologically corresponds to sōns, both from *h₁es- (“to be”). See also essentia for a similar formation. The original present participle sōns had taken on the meaning "guilty" in the Classical period, but the still productive combining form sēns present in the verbs absum (absēns (“absent”)) and praesum (praesēns (“present”)) was ignored in creating this form.

verb[ˈẽːs]Classical-Latin[ˈɛns]

  1. being

    declension-3 · one-termination · participle
    ēns quā ēns
Where this word comes from

Formed as a present participle of sum (“to be”) in Medieval Latin (and therefore unknown in the Classical period) by using the bare present participial ending -ēns of second and third conjugation verbs, as an analogy to the Ancient Greek present participle ὤν (ṓn) which falsely appears to be the same bare suffix but etymologically corresponds to sōns, both from *h₁es- (“to be”). See also essentia for a similar formation. The original present participle sōns had taken on the meaning "guilty" in the Classical period, but the still productive combining form sēns present in the verbs absum (absēns (“absent”)) and praesum (praesēns (“present”)) was ignored in creating this form.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.