essay

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (2)  · 
Shirky has some interesting stuff to say about the future -- he thinks that entrepreneurs like Craig Newmark will likely create the institutions that replace newspapers -- but the best part of the essay is the beginning, when he describes how newspaper companies failed to consider the possibility that their industry was undergoing a revolution:

View all »
Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun A short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author.
  2. noun Something resembling such a composition: a photojournalistic essay.
  3. noun A testing or trial of the value or nature of a thing: an essay of the students' capabilities.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (10)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • "We thought that the essay was the perfect extension of the other co-curricular activities already on campus," he said. —  Durangoherald.com
  • This essay is the third and final in a multi-part series about a personal experience with colorectal cancer. —  Dane101
  • This essay is the first in a multi-part series about a personal experience with colorectal cancer. —  Dane101
  • This essay is the second in a multi-part series about a personal experience with colorectal cancer. —  Dane101
  • Editor's Note: This essay is a condensed version of a paper originally commissioned by the Korea Economic Institute (KEI) for its Academic Paper Series. —  Foreign Policy In Focus
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 168 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

poem ·  treatise ·  lecture ·  novel ·  pamphlet ·  discourse ·  biography ·  commentary ·  article ·  sketch ·  criticism ·  journal

Used in the same contextWord Family

essay:   essays ·  essayed
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French essai, trial, attempt, from Old French, from essayer, to attempt, from Vulgar Latin *exagiāre, to weigh out, from Late Latin exagium, a weighing : Latin ex-, ex- + Latin agere, to drive; see ag- in Indo-European roots. V., from Middle English assaien, from Old French assaer, assaier, variant of essayer.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. The older English form is assay, q. v.; from Middle English assay, asay, assai, asaie, trial, attempt, from Old French asai, essai, essay (later only essai, later later English essay), modern F. essai = Provencal essay = Spanish ensayo = Portuguese ensaio = Italian saggio, assay, trial, experiment, from Late Latin exagium, a weighing, a weight, a balance, from L. *exagere, exigere, past participle exactus, drive out, require, exact, examine, try, from ex, out, + agere, drive, lead, bring, etc. See examen, examine, from the same source. The Greek ἐξάγιον, sometimes quoted as the origin of the L. exagium, is rare LGr., and is taken from the L. term; it denotes a certain weight, 1½ drachmæ. Popular etymology altered the form to ἑξάγιον, as if from ἑξ = English six.
  2. The older English form is assay, q. v.; from Middle English assayen, asayen, assaien, asaien, try, make trial of, from Old French asaier, essayer, French essayer = Provencal assaiar, essaier = Spanish ensayar = Portuguese ensaiar = Italian saggiare, assaggiare, try; from the noun.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/ɛˈseɪ/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a week.

Recently looked up

cupid · lackey · conch · double-stranded · teleportation

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

rimshot · qualms · poofter · oh for heaven's sake · embodies