ens

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɛnz/

From Late Latin ēns (“thing”), from esse (“to be”). See entity.

ens (plural enses or entia)

1. (philosophy) An entity or being; an existing thing, as opposed to a quality or attribute.
   • 1860, John Henry Macmahon, A treatise on metaphysics: chiefly in reference to revealed religion, page 195:

     the Nature of the Supreme Ens

2. (chemistry, alchemy, now historical) Something supposed to condense within itself all the virtues and qualities of a substance from which it is extracted; an essence, an active principle.
   • 2006, Philip Ball, The Devil's Doctor, Arrow 2007, p. 245:

     Here he states that there are five ‘active principles’ – the five Enses or entia – that influence our bodies and give rise to disease […]

Inflected forms.

ens

1. plural of en

• ESN, NES, SEN, SNe, Sen, Sen., sen

• IPA^(key): /əns/

ens (proclitic, enclitic nos, contracted enclitic 'ns)

1. us (direct or indirect object)

From Latin ēns (“being”); compare Spanish ente.

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈɛns/

ens m (plural ens)

1. organization, entity, institution

   ens públic

   public institution

From Old Norse eins, from Middle Low German eines.

• IPA^(key): /eːns/, [eːˀns]

ens

1. identical
2. alike

ens

1. genitive of en

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.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ens/, [ẽːs]

ēns n (genitive entis); third declension

1. (Medieval Latin) being
   • 13th c., Boetius of Dacia

     Ens autem aeternum nullum sequitur in duratione; ergo mundus non est aeternus. - Nothing follows the Eternal Being (God) in duration; therefore, the world isn't eternal.

Third-declension noun (neuter, “pure” i-stem).

• Italian: ente
• Portuguese: ente
• Spanish: ente

ēns (genitive entis); third-declension one-termination participle

1. being

Third-declension participle.

¹When used purely as an adjective.

• entitās (Mediaeval Latin)

• ens in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ens in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• ens in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

From Old French ens.

ens

1. in; inside

• enz

From Latin intus.

ens

1. in; inside

• dedens

• Middle French: ens

ens

1. even

• inte ens
• med ens

ens

1. indefinite genitive singular of en

ens

1. genitive of the indefinite pronoun "man"; one's