essay
Americannoun
-
a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.
-
anything resembling such a composition.
a picture essay.
-
an effort to perform or accomplish something; attempt.
-
Philately. a design for a proposed stamp differing in any way from the design of the stamp as issued.
-
Obsolete. a tentative effort; trial; assay.
verb (used with object)
-
to try; attempt.
-
to put to the test; make trial of.
noun
-
a short literary composition dealing with a subject analytically or speculatively
-
an attempt or endeavour; effort
-
a test or trial
verb
-
to attempt or endeavour; try
-
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
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.
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
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
In an August 1978 essay for Ebony, he observed that if the rising generation of black youth hoped to “close the gap and catch up” in income and education, their priority should be discipline:
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 22, 2026
He had done a good deal of writing at the table beneath that tree, calling it a “strong-willed, powerful thing in-itself, reaching up and reaching down” in his 1924 essay “Pan in America.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026
After I’d been meeting with Professor Steinberg for a month, I wrote an essay comparing Edmund Burke with Publius, the persona under which James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay had written The Federalist Papers.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
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.
