You regularly encounter idiomatic expressions or idioms both in verbal or written form so it’s not surprising that you end up mixing the words up or confuse one from another. Idioms are defined as “a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words.” This post will focus on the idioms, in essence and in a sense, and try to determine how these two should be properly used.
The phrase in essence is used to mean “basically and without regard for peripheral details.” This idiom may be simplified by using its synonyms such as essentially, fundamentally, and primarily.
In essence, an art museum on Minnesota Street
San Francisco ChronicleDodgers’ tribute to Vin Scully is in essence a celebration of baseball history
Los Angeles Times“There are now, in essence, two investigations taking place: one, an…”
Great Falls Tribune
Meanwhile, the phrase in a sense is an idiom “used to indicate a particular interpretation of a statement or situation” or to mean “in one way of looking at it.” The phrase in some sense may also be used in place of this idiomatic expression.
Shura knew what time it was — well, in a sense
Los Angeles Times‘In a sense, Acorn did take over Apple’
The Telegraph“You find out like everyone else on TV. It’s cruel in a sense but adds to the whole drama of it”
The42
Determining which idiomatic expression to use is very simple in a sense because in essence, you just have to know whether you are discussing the fundamentals of something (in essence) or discussing a certain way of looking at something (in a sense).
