Lessing

American  

[les-ing] / ˈlɛs ɪŋ /

noun

1. Doris (May), 1919–2013, British novelist in Africa; born in Persia; Nobel Prize in Literature 2007.

2. Gotthold Ephraim 1729–81, German critic and dramatist.

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Lessing British  

/ ˈlɛsɪŋ /

noun

1. Doris ( May ). born 1919, English novelist and short-story writer, brought up in Rhodesia: her novels include the five-novel sequence Children of Violence (1952–69), The Golden Notebook (1962), a series of science-fiction works (1979–83), The Good Terrorist (1985), and The Sweetest Dream (2001). Nobel prize for literature 2007

2. Gotthold Ephraim (ˈɡɔthɔlt ˈeːfrɑɪm). 1729–81, German dramatist and critic. His plays include Miss Sara Sampson (1755), the first German domestic tragedy, and Nathan der Weise (1779). He is noted for his criticism of French classical dramatists, and for his treatise on aesthetics Laokoon (1766)

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Example Sentences

They include Steve Lessing, a former Lehman Brothers Holdings and Barclays executive who worked with Bush and with Finback founding partner Jack Oliver in years past.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 13, 2026

There is one book that changed my life — it didn’t wreck my life — “The Golden Notebook” by Doris Lessing.

From Salon • May 30, 2025

Tuesday in an isolated desert area near Lessing Avenue and Shadow Mountain Road, near U.S.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 26, 2024

Previous winners of the prize - given for a body of work, rather than a book - have included Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Bob Dylan.

From BBC • Oct. 5, 2023

In 1778 Gotthold Lessing wrote a little essay on the German word for ‘fact’, Tatsache: ‘The word is still youthful,’ he said.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton