prose
Americannoun
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proses
plural
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the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.
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matter-of-fact, commonplace, or dull expression, quality, discourse, etc.
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Liturgy. a hymn sung after the gradual, originating from a practice of setting words to the jubilatio of the alleluia.
adjective
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of, in, or pertaining to prose.
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commonplace; dull; prosaic.
verb (used with object)
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proses,
present (3rd person singular)
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prosed,
past participle, past
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prosing
present participle
verb (used without object)
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proses,
present (3rd person singular)
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prosed,
past participle, past
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prosing
present participle
noun
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spoken or written language as in ordinary usage, distinguished from poetry by its lack of a marked metrical structure
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a passage set for translation into a foreign language
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commonplace or dull discourse, expression, etc
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RC Church a hymn recited or sung after the gradual at Mass
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(modifier) written in prose
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(modifier) matter-of-fact
verb
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to write or say (something) in prose
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(intr) to speak or write in a tedious style
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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prosesimple
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prosessimple
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have prosedperfect
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has prosedperfect
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am prosingprogressive
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are prosingprogressive
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is prosingprogressive
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have been prosingperfect progressive
-
has been prosingperfect progressive
Past
-
prosedsimple
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had prosedperfect
-
was prosingprogressive
-
were prosingprogressive
-
had been prosingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of prose
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin prōsa (ōrātiō), literally, “straightforward (speech),” feminine of prōsus, prōrsus, contraction of prōversus “turned forward,” past participle of prōvertere “to turn forward,” equivalent to prō- pro- 1 + vertere “to turn”
Explanation
Prose is so-called "ordinary writing" — made up of sentences and paragraphs, without any metrical (or rhyming) structure. If you write, "I walked about all alone over the hillsides," that's prose. If you say, "I wondered lonely as a cloud/that floats on high o'er vales and hills" that's poetry. See the difference? (Let's not get into prose poetry!) From prose we get the term prosaic, meaning "ordinary" or "commonplace," or lacking the specially delicacy and beauty of its supposed opposite — poetry.
Vocabulary lists containing prose
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Literary Terms, Grade 6, Unit 1
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Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
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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.
See Examples For:
Rapidly advancing AI systems can now compose prose, program code, solve complex mathematical problems, persuade, and discover novel viruses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026
In Schoenbrun’s debut novel, “Public Access Afterworld,” the filmmaker takes a sizable risk, stripping away the meticulously crafted onscreen worlds to assert the dexterity of their prose.
From Salon ● Oct. 29, 2026
All this was presented in calm, scientific prose and aided by dense mathematical equations.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
Few critics praised Archer's prose style, his sense of humour, or the emotional depth of his characters.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
“Aye. Look! I’m starting to see some letters! Although the prose looks a bit odd...”
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
It contains drawings and proses which have nothing but a formal, not an illustrative or explanatory, relation to each other.
From Time Magazine Archive
Brown cicala drily proses, Creaking the hot air to sleep, Bounteous orange flowers and roses, Yield the wealth of love they keep, To the sun's imperious ardour in a dream of fragrance deep.
From What I Remember, Volume 2 by Thomas Adolphus Trollope
Never mind how the pedagogue proses, You want not antiquity's stamp; The lip, that such fragrance discloses, Oh! never should smell of the lamp.
From The Home Book of Verse — Volume 4 by Burton Egbert Stevenson
By day he teaches his own particular subject; by night he looks over proses or corrects algebra papers.
From The Lighter Side of School Life by Ian Hay
Philip proses about the burden he takes up and the cares he endures.
From The Age of Tennyson by Hugh Walker
A similar bill prosed in the Senate would change visitation restrictions specifically for nursing homes, although the measure has not yet been placed on the Legislature’s agenda.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 3, 2021
He wanted a good walk; his head was stupid from his lectures; that old Jennings prosed so awfully upon Paley, it made him quite ill.
From Loss and Gain The Story of a Convert by John Henry Newman
And when he had versed his verse and had prosed his prose, he again groaned and complained and remembered he had been and how he had been parted from his brother.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
You will admit that I have never prosed so much before, but the period and the subject seem to encourage it.
From Through the Magic Door by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
And he had prosed by the hour to this woman about his own griefs and love-troubles!
From Under False Pretences A Novel by Adeline Sergeant
Most of the time all the spectator sees is Spencer Tracy sitting in a rowboat and mumbling to himself, and all he hears is Hemingway's own narrative prosing along the sound track.
From Time Magazine Archive
Oh, I say, I do wish you wouldn’t keep on prosing about what nobody wants to hear.
From Hunting the Skipper The Cruise of the "Seafowl" Sloop by Harold Piffard
As for those times when he goes on prosing in rhyme from force of habit, I think it is more respectful as well as more pleasurable to allow him to walk alone.
From The Gentle Reader by Samuel McChord Crothers
Now, Roque," he said, "you must allow I have listened very attentively to your prosing.
From Gómez Arias Or, The Moors of the Alpujarras, A Spanish Historical Romance. by Joaquín Telesforo de Trueba y Cosío
Her long-winded prosing was now cut short and ridiculed, and her Mops dare scarcely put his nose outside the good lady's petticoats, under the shelter of which he lay snoring from morning till night.
From The Danes Sketched by Themselves. Vol. III (of 3) A Series of Popular Stories by the Best Danish Authors by Various
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