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
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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:
“A Past Without Pictures” is a bleak but intermittently lyrical work with lean prose.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Few critics praised Archer's prose style, his sense of humour, or the emotional depth of his characters.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Writing in newspaper Canard Enchaine, Fabrice Colin also criticised the formulaic sentence structure and said he "vainly looked for a unique voice" in the prose.
From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026
Yet some readers online had criticized the book’s prose as overwrought, noting that parts sounded like AI, before the allegations erupted.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 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
I held the little beast's head all over the Latin proses for Monday.
From Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling
Philip proses about the burden he takes up and the cares he endures.
From The Age of Tennyson by Hugh Walker
But there is a man in my office, a Mr. Hedges, who proses it away from morning to night, and never gets beyond corporal and material verities.
From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5 The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 1796-1820 by E. V. (Edward Verrall) Lucas
Sometimes he proses, and sometimes he runs to seed.
From Emerson and Other Essays by John Jay Chapman
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
How he had argued and prosed for weeks as to whether they could afford these few days! although it was vacation, and Lufflin had sent free passes for the road.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 99, January, 1866 by Various
But I think I have prosed enough for one sitting, and it is growing late—one o’clock, as I am a living sinner!—and you must be growing tired.
From The Adventures of Dick Maitland A Tale of Unknown Africa by Alec Ball
It was not his way to treat subjects coldly and vaguely; he rarely generalized, never prosed.
From Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Well, I have prosed unconscionably, so adieu for the present.
From Letters from the Cape by Lady Lucie Duff Gordon
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
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
But though a minstrel’s poem it is far from rude, and it is quite free from the ordinary faults of rambling and prosing, such as Chaucer ridiculed in his Geste of Sir Thopas.
From Medieval English Literature Home University of Modern Knowledge #43 by W. P. (William Paton) Ker
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
"Sir," said Dr. Johnson, to some prosing tormentor, "I would rather a man would knock me down, than to begin to talk to me of the Punic wars."
From Practical Education, Volume II by Maria Edgeworth
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