prose
Americannoun
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proses
plural
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the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.
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matter-of-fact, commonplace, or dull expression, quality, discourse, etc.
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Liturgy. a hymn sung after the gradual, originating from a practice of setting words to the jubilatio of the alleluia.
adjective
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of, in, or pertaining to prose.
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commonplace; dull; prosaic.
verb (used with object)
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proses,
present (3rd person singular)
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prosed,
past participle, past
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prosing
present participle
verb (used without object)
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proses,
present (3rd person singular)
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prosed,
past participle, past
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prosing
present participle
noun
-
spoken or written language as in ordinary usage, distinguished from poetry by its lack of a marked metrical structure
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a passage set for translation into a foreign language
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commonplace or dull discourse, expression, etc
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RC Church a hymn recited or sung after the gradual at Mass
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(modifier) written in prose
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(modifier) matter-of-fact
verb
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to write or say (something) in prose
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(intr) to speak or write in a tedious style
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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prosesimple
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prosessimple
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have prosedperfect
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has prosedperfect
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am prosingprogressive
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are prosingprogressive
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is prosingprogressive
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have been prosingperfect progressive
-
has been prosingperfect progressive
Past
-
prosedsimple
-
had prosedperfect
-
was prosingprogressive
-
were prosingprogressive
-
had been prosingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of prose
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin prōsa (ōrātiō), literally, “straightforward (speech),” feminine of prōsus, prōrsus, contraction of prōversus “turned forward,” past participle of prōvertere “to turn forward,” equivalent to prō- pro- 1 + vertere “to turn”
Explanation
Prose is so-called "ordinary writing" — made up of sentences and paragraphs, without any metrical (or rhyming) structure. If you write, "I walked about all alone over the hillsides," that's prose. If you say, "I wondered lonely as a cloud/that floats on high o'er vales and hills" that's poetry. See the difference? (Let's not get into prose poetry!) From prose we get the term prosaic, meaning "ordinary" or "commonplace," or lacking the specially delicacy and beauty of its supposed opposite — poetry.
Vocabulary lists containing prose
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Literary Terms, Grade 6, Unit 1
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Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
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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:
It’s very sentimental — which the novel, with its matter-of-fact, if sensually evocative prose, and it’s child’s eye view, is not.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Ms. Han renders the attempts to control Yeong-hye and her subversive responses in prose of transcendent power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
The prose was heavy on exclamation points, light on specifics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
But his impenetrable prose -- used to avoid committing to any particular course -- and his confidence in unfettered markets and institutions to correct themselves frustrated critics, who believed the US economy needed stronger guardrails.
From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026
In classic prose the writer is directing the gaze of the reader to something in the world she can see for herself.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
It contains drawings and proses which have nothing but a formal, not an illustrative or explanatory, relation to each other.
From Time Magazine Archive
Brown cicala drily proses, Creaking the hot air to sleep, Bounteous orange flowers and roses, Yield the wealth of love they keep, To the sun's imperious ardour in a dream of fragrance deep.
From What I Remember, Volume 2 by Thomas Adolphus Trollope
Perhaps he deserved the epithet for going even as straight as he did to his house-master, who was discovered correcting proses with a blue pencil and a briar pipe.
From The Camera Fiend by E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
The “Laetabundus” is in rhymed stanzas; in this it differs from most early proses.
From Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan by Clement A. Miles
On how many evenings had the sadness of life been dissipated in listening to these proses chanted in the churches!
From En Route by J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans
A similar bill prosed in the Senate would change visitation restrictions specifically for nursing homes, although the measure has not yet been placed on the Legislature’s agenda.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 3, 2021
For exactly twenty-one minutes she prosed on uninterruptedly, like a stream flowing over its bed; never stopped to take breath once.
From The Fire Trumpet A Romance of the Cape Frontier by Bertram Mitford
Before many days the occasion of my haste will be ascertained, and that it had no reference to the watchmen; and the prosecution will be voluntarily nol prosed.
From Stories by American Authors, Volume 2 by Various
He wanted a good walk; his head was stupid from his lectures; that old Jennings prosed so awfully upon Paley, it made him quite ill.
From Loss and Gain The Story of a Convert by John Henry Newman
Two brothers, counsellor and pleader, went Through life on terms of mutual compliment; That thought the other Gracchus, this supposed His brother Mucius; so they praised and prosed.
From The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry by John Conington
Most of the time all the spectator sees is Spencer Tracy sitting in a rowboat and mumbling to himself, and all he hears is Hemingway's own narrative prosing along the sound track.
From Time Magazine Archive
Lady Linacre, his nearest neighbour, was prosing on to Mrs. Burton Smith, his next nearest.
From Laid up in Lavender by Stanley J. Weyman
You may thank your stars that I do not give way to my inclination, for you would have more prosing than you would care to read.
From Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Wife of Henry Ware, Jr. by Edward B. Hall
To sit there listening to Aunt Hester chirping and Uncle Reuben prosing, and see the blue eyes making love, in eloquent silence, to the black ones, was almost too much for human nature to endure.
From Norine's Revenge; Sir Noel's Heir by May Agnes Fleming
And, as if to put an end to the General's prosing, he turned to Montague Maynard.
From A Traitor's Wooing by Headon Hill
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.
