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.
Consider this passage from a recent New York Review essay by former Obama national security official Ben Rhodes.
From Salon
The 7,200-word essay from the independent research firm helped spark a selloff in software stocks that wiped out $200 billion in market value.
From MarketWatch
Between 2017 and 2020 I published several essays and a memoir about my mother’s imprisonment and our escape from the Islamic Republic, and the displacement that followed.
Not long ago, Amodei wrote an essay in which he agreed that AI was beneficial and necessary for democracies, but “we cannot ignore the potential for abuse of these technologies by democratic governments themselves.”
From Los Angeles Times
Mr. Willis published an essay, “Post-Mortuum Soiree,” in the next issue of his Home Journal, “the ‘demonstration,’ … is of sufficient extent and respectability to warrant grave attention.
From Literature
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.
