Émile

American  

[ey-meel] / eɪˈmil /

noun

1. a didactic novel (1762) by J. J. Rousseau, dealing principally with the author's theories of education.

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Émile Cultural  

1. A work on education by Jean Jacques Rousseau, describing how a fictional boy, Émile, should be brought up. The book had an enormous influence on education during the age of romanticism and afterward.

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Example Sentences

Sam Sacks praises the Tamil writer Jeyamohan’s novel as “an astonishing work of naturalism” that calls to mind the fiction of Émile Zola.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 30, 2026

It is a story worthy of Charles Dickens or Émile Zola, told from a woman’s point of view.

From New York Times • Mar. 28, 2024

The shared purpose Johnson was hitting on, that joie de vivre that served as the basis for David Émile Durkheim’s theory of religion, was coined by the sociologist in the 20th century.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 28, 2023

The French novelist Émile Zola was the creator of naturalism, and his numerous works depict people trapped by their environment or their heredity into acting in ways for which they cannot be held fully responsible.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

Vincent's friend Émile Bernard was a great help.

From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman