prose

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
At its best and at its worst alike his prose is the prose of a poet.

View all »
Definitions (19)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun Ordinary speech or writing, without metrical structure.
  2. noun Commonplace expression or quality.
  3. noun Roman Catholic Church A hymn of irregular meter sung before the Gospel.
2 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Westminster Abbey has never witnessed a statelier, costlier funeral than that of “the late man who made himself to be called Protector,” to quote words from one of the most impressive passages in English prose, the opening sentences of Cowley's Discourse by way of Vision concerning the Government of Oliver Cromwell . —  Andrew Marvell
  • It was his first effort in English prose, and it is doubtful whether he ever managed his mother tongue better, if indeed he ever managed it so well. —  The Project Gutenberg eBook of Gibbon, by James Cotter Morison
  • Yes, the prose could be a little more elegant, and the plots could be a tad more logical -- but in exchange for those lacks you get an arterial infusion of Sense of Wonder. —  F ;SF; - vol 092 issue 06 - June 1997
  • It has no pictures and it has that shiny paper that I associate with text books and the prose is almost impenetrable, and you know what? —  F ;SF; - vol 102 issue 05 - May 2002
  • At the same time, there are qualities of delicacy and precision in French prose which it was good for me to appreciate, even imperfectly CHAPTER XXVIII. —  Philip Gilbert Hamerton
More examples »
 

Tags

prose hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 214 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin prōsa (ōrātiō), straightforward (discourse), feminine of prōsus, alteration of prōrsus, from prōversus, past participle of prōvertere, to turn forward : prō-, forward; see pro-1 + vertere, to turn; see wer-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English prose, from Old French prose, French prose = Spanish Portuguese Italian prosa = Dutch proza = Old High German prōsa, Middle High German prōse, German prosa = Icelandic prōsa = Swedish Danish prosa, from Latin prosa, prose, short for prosa oratio, straightforward or direct speech (i. e. without transpositions or ornamental variations as in verse): prosa, feminine of prosus, contr. of prorsus, straightforward, direct, contr. of *proversus, from pro, forth, + versus, turned, past participle of vertere, turn (later versus (versu-), a turning, a line, verse): see verse. The element vers- is thus contained, though in different applications, in both verse and prose. Cf. Greek πεζο\ς λόγος or πεζη\ λέξις, Latin pedestris oratio, prose, literally ‘speech afoot’ (not ‘mounted’ or elevated).
  2. from Middle English prosen; from prose, n.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/proʊz/
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

volcanic · pejabat · marginalization · codger · burlesque

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

these grunts every eight hours · haul it off to our darkest dungeon · send for a doctor · forget what witticism you were originally going to insert here because you've just banged your knee on your desk · the rest will come naturally