essay
Americannoun
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essays
plural
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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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essays,
present (3rd person singular)
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essayed,
past participle, past
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essaying
present participle
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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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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essaysimple
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essayssimple
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have essayedperfect
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has essayedperfect
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am essayingprogressive
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are essayingprogressive
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is essayingprogressive
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have been essayingperfect progressive
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has been essayingperfect progressive
Past
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essayedsimple
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had essayedperfect
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was essayingprogressive
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were essayingprogressive
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had been essayingperfect progressive
Future
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; see exact) + -ium -ium
Explanation
A composition that is usually short and has a literary theme is called an essay. You should probably start writing your essay on "To Kill a Mockingbird" sometime before the bus ride to school the day it is due. As a noun, an essay is also an attempt, especially a tentative initial one. Your essay to make friends at your new school would probably work better if you actually spoke to other students. As a verb, to essay is to make an attempt. If you essay to run for student council, you might lose to the girl who promises more recess, longer lunches, and less homework.
Vocabulary lists containing essay
PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade7)
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Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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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.
See Examples For:
As Baldacci says in an essay this week, “Arguing about facts doesn’t deter outlandish ideas, misinformation or AI hallucination. Maybe more storytelling, more imagination, more fiction is what’s needed to combat the unreality spun online.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Zuckerberg's recent essay doesn't name names - but the Meta boss mimics Andreessen by questioning those who have warned about the negatives of future tech.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Not only does this grant Bonta VIP access to the moral highground, it all but negates Ellison’s recent New York Times guest essay.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
In June, as I was drafting this essay, we experienced another pregnancy loss, this time a rare and dangerous type of ectopic pregnancy.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
Pearl, true to her word, handed Lexie a typed-up essay the next week—the story of the frog prince, from the point of view of the frog.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
The justices have been writing essays about the problem for a decade while the seizures continue.
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2026
In two essays published shortly before his Makerfield campaign, Haigh set out a vision for a radical reshaping of the British state.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Even if you did not like the political observations of some of those magazines, essays, critiques, poetry or whatever was in ther, these are feelings from the people, and they’re protected under the First Amendment.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
One 2025 MIT study went viral for its finding that students using generative AI to write essays displayed less critical thinking capability.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
What he needs is more time to work on essays.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
In the second cast, Christine Shevchenko fell far short of Ms. Teuscher’s finesse, but she essayed the opening “Preghiera” movement with more of its requisite lilt and shimmer than Ms. Teuscher did.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
That section essayed — at the very least — to disqualify from federal office the Civil War rebels and, prospectively, anyone who tried to do the same thing again.
From Slate ● Sep. 19, 2023
Before the Schubert, Vogt and the Tetzlaffs had essayed the three Brahms trios, as well as two by Dvorak; with Christian alone, there were accounts of sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2023
Meanwhile, dos Santos — with an army of around 100,000 troops, many with years of jungle combat experience — essayed a role as a regional power broker, starting with neighboring countries.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 8, 2022
Milt essayed, “We can have it ready in ten days. We’ll deliver it during the day while your husband is at work.”
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
Here, Sinatra is clearly stretching the limits of what was possible for a popular singer—one can’t imagine any of his predecessors or contemporaries essaying a work as long and complex as this.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2025
The actress was a member of the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic from 1972-75, essaying Lady Macbeth in 1972.
From Salon ● Sep. 10, 2020
Like all reflective objects though, the act of essaying has a twoness about it.
From Washington Post ● May 11, 2020
All eyes would otherwise be on Antony Sher, who is essaying this most daunting of tragic roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company production at the Barbican directed by Gregory Doran.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2016
Mattie's was an old face which stopped the way at that time—Mattie, basketless and onionless, and trying lucifers again, and essaying on Saturday nights—when workmen's wages were paid—a song or two opposite the public-houses.
From Mattie:?A Stray (Vol 1 of 3) by Frederick William Robinson
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.
