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Proust

American  
[proost, proost] / prust, prust /

noun

  1. Joseph Louis 1754–1826, French chemist.

  2. Marcel 1871–1922, French novelist.


Proust British  
/ prust /

noun

  1. Joseph Louis (ʒozɛf lwi). 1754–1826, French chemist, who formulated the law of constant proportions

  2. Marcel (marsɛl). 1871–1922, French novelist whose long novel À la recherche du temps perdu (1913–27) deals with the relationship of the narrator to themes such as art, time, memory, and society

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

As Van Gogh had his sunflowers and Proust his madeleine, so Neil Diamond had a bottle of cheap Canadian booze.

From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026

For him, pinball games unlock memories, much as the madeleine did for Proust.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

GERWIG: So he would have loved Proust Barbie!

From Seattle Times • Jul. 20, 2023

Mr. Tuong’s interests were eclectic and he said he liked challenges, taking on difficult writers like Proust, Nabokov, Camus, Sartre, Emily Brontë, Céline, Chekhov, Murakami, Günter Grass and Tolstoy.

From New York Times • Mar. 7, 2023

That every year, on her birthday, her father would present her with another puzzle and another novel, and she would read all of Jules Verne and all of Dumas and maybe even Balzac and Proust?

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

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