essayist
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of essayist
Explanation
Someone who writes short, literary nonfiction is an essayist. If you love penning political manifestos or book reviews, you might want to try being a published essayist. Anyone who writes short pieces of nonfiction can describe themselves as an essayist, especially if those essays get published in journals or on websites. All you need to do to become an essayist is polish your writing skills and find a topic you're really interested in — then start writing essays! Essayist is from essay and its Latin root exigere, "try out or test."
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.
Perhaps the most eloquent is the naturalist and essayist Henry David Thoreau, who wrote “man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can do without.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025
Critics, including a guest essayist for the New York Times, have called his Oval Office remodel a "Gilded Rococo Nightmare".
From BBC • Oct. 15, 2025
Waldie, essayist and cultural historian, is the author of “Becoming Los Angeles: Myth, Memory, and a Sense of Place,” among other books.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 10, 2025
Felsenthal is a fiction writer, poet, critic and essayist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Guardian, the Atlantic and other publications.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2025
“Are you really? Well, you know what they say—God will not look you over for medals or diplomas, but for scars. That’s Elbert Hubbard, an American essayist, if you’re interested.”
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
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.
