What does quintessential mean?
Word: Quintessential
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Quintessential means being the most typical or perfect example of something.
Synonyms: archetypal
Word origin: From medieval Latin quinta essentia, through French; English first used the noun quintessence for the purest part of a thing.
How do you spell quintessential?
Syllables: quin - tes - sen - tial
Tricky part: There is a double s in the middle, so quintesential is wrong, and the a before the final l is easy to forget.
Watch out for: quintesential, quintessentail, quintessental
Memory tip: Read it as quint + essential: the whole of essential, double s and all, sits after quint.
Quintessential in a sentence
Example 1: A plate of hot idlis with sambar is the quintessential South Indian breakfast.
Example 2: With his calm voice and his shelves of poetry, Mr Rao was the quintessential English teacher.
Example 3: The village fair, with its giant wheel and bangle stalls, felt quintessentially Indian.
Fun Fact
Shakespeare uses the noun in Hamlet, where the prince calls a human being 'this quintessence of dust'.
Practise the CREST Way
Back to the Roots
Choose the correct option:
Quintessential goes back to the Latin quinta essentia, the fifth essence. Old thinkers believed this fifth element was purer than the other four, which were ___.
a) gold, silver, copper and iron
b) sun, moon, stars and sky
c) salt, sugar, oil and milk
d) earth, water, air and fire
Show answer
d) earth, water, air and fire. Ancient and medieval thinkers counted earth, water, air and fire as the four elements; the fifth was thought to fill the heavens.
Spellacadabra
Choose the option in which the following letters will fit in the given order:
i, e
a) c__nf__ssion
b) pr__f__ssional
c) s__cc__ssful
d) qu__nt__ssential
Show answer
d) qu__nt__ssential. Put i and then e into the gaps and quint and essential appear; professional and confession want o first, and successful u.
Spell Spies
Choose the pair which has a spelling error:
a) influence : influential
b) confidence : confidencial
c) essence : essential
d) residence : residential
Show answer
b) confidence : confidencial. Confidential, like the other three adjectives, ends in tial even though its noun ends in ence.
Word Champ
Choose the correct word for the blank:
With its tea gardens, misty hills and little toy train, Darjeeling is the ___ hill station.
a) quizzical
b) quintessential
c) questionable
d) quarrelsome
Show answer
b) quintessential. Darjeeling is the classic, textbook hill station; quarrelsome, questionable and quizzical describe people or doubts, not places.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. If a film is called a quintessential detective story, it ___.
a) was the first detective film ever made
b) is too short to have a proper ending
c) mixes many types without fitting any
d) has every feature you expect of that type
Show answer
d) has every feature you expect of that type
2. Which word is the opposite of quintessential?
a) perfect
b) ideal
c) standard
d) atypical
Show answer
d) atypical
