essay
Americannoun
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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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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
- 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
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.
This is the tantalizing question underpinning Adam Phillips’s essay collection “The Life You Want.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
Then came his 1849 essay, later read by people like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 6, 2026
Importantly, Beethoven’s symphonic essay on leadership and power was followed by the premiere of orchestrations by several composers of selected variations from Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026
An essay the filmmaker penned for the Norwegian magazine “D2” in 2012 has recently resurfaced, putting his new film into a stranger perspective.
From Salon • Apr. 3, 2026
Bruno Latour, in an important essay entitled ‘Visualization and Cognition: Drawing Things Together’, which originally appeared in 1986, claimed that the printing press made facts ‘harder’; before printing, facts were too soft to be reliable.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
