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.

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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

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verb

1. to attempt or endeavour; try

2. to test or try out

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.

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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

In his witty appraisal of Michel de Montaigne’s essays, Emerson celebrates their open-mindedness and vigor with language that is itself expansive and raw.

From The Wall Street Journal

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

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

“I believed that exposing the truth,” Huerta wrote in a short essay, “would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”

From Los Angeles Times

Citrini’s essay ends with a line that deserves more attention than the doom that preceded it: “The canary is still alive.”

From MarketWatch

Related Words

• article
• discussion
• dissertation
• manuscript
• paper
• piece
• study
• thesis
• treatise