essay
Americannoun
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a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.
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anything resembling such a composition.
a picture essay.
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an effort to perform or accomplish something; attempt.
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Philately. a design for a proposed stamp differing in any way from the design of the stamp as issued.
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Obsolete. a tentative effort; trial; assay.
verb (used with object)
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to try; attempt.
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to put to the test; make trial of.
noun
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a short literary composition dealing with a subject analytically or speculatively
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an attempt or endeavour; effort
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a test or trial
verb
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to attempt or endeavour; try
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to test or try out
Other Word Forms
- essayer noun
- preessay verb (used without object)
- unessayed adjective
- well-essayed adjective
Etymology
Origin of essay
First recorded in 1475–85; from Middle French essayer, from Late Latin exagium “a weighing,” from exag(ere) (unrecorded) “to examine, test,” literally, “to drive out, thrust out” (from Latin exigere; exact ) + -ium -ium
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Her memoir, which was based in part on Burden’s popular New York Times Modern Love essay “Was I Married to a Stranger?”
From Los Angeles Times
“Don’t be selfish, Lexie. The business, which is going to pay for our rent and groceries, is obviously more important than your swim, or your little essay. Get your priorities straight.”
From Literature
The directors take a visual essay approach, contrasting Walden Pond and its woods and the rivers Thoreau rowed with sped-up footage of our crazy modern world — which can be a little on the nose.
From Los Angeles Times
Together, they create a documentary that looks like a moodboard colliding with a fashion archivist’s YouTube video essay.
From Salon
The neck has long been a “dead giveaway” of one’s age, Nora Ephron wrote in her collection of essays, “I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
