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essay

American  
[es-ey, es-ey, e-sey, e-sey] / ˈɛs eɪ, ˈɛs eɪ, ɛˈseɪ, ɛˈseɪ /

noun

  1. a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.

  2. anything resembling such a composition.

    a picture essay.

  3. an effort to perform or accomplish something; attempt.

  4. Philately. a design for a proposed stamp differing in any way from the design of the stamp as issued.

  5. Obsolete. a tentative effort; trial; assay.

verb (used with object)

  1. to try; attempt.

  2. to put to the test; make trial of.

essay British  

noun

  1. a short literary composition dealing with a subject analytically or speculatively

  2. an attempt or endeavour; effort

  3. a test or trial

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to attempt or endeavour; try

  2. to test or try out

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
essay Cultural  

  1. A short piece of writing on one subject, usually presenting the author's own views. Michel de Montaigne, Francis Bacon (see also Bacon), and Ralph Waldo Emerson are celebrated for their essays.

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.

We will never know how far into either essay Hilary Duff’s husband got.

From Los Angeles Times

Chan School of Public Health pointed out in a November essay in the New Yorker.

From Salon

"I, for one, bet on science as helping us," he wrote in his 1968 personal autobiographical essay Self Portrait.

From BBC

When she pointed out how many drafts I typically write for a journal essay or book chapter, our son replied: “But Dad has more free time than I do!”

From The Wall Street Journal

Selected by Clifford Thompson, the author of the essay collection “Jazz June.”

From The Wall Street Journal

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.