essay
/ɛˈseɪ/UK/ˈɛs.eɪ/
essay noun: a written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
Noun
essay (plural essays)
- A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
- In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.”2013 January, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 09 Feb 2017, page 64
- A test, experiment; an assay.
- An attempt.
- My first essay at getting employment was fruitless; but after no small number of mortifying rebuffs from various parties to whom I applied for assistance, I was at last rewarded by a comparative success.1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 16
- This was Lee's first essay in the kind of offensive-defensive strategy that was to become his hallmark.1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2003, page 455
- A proposed design for a postage stamp or a banknote.
Verb
essay (third-person singular simple present essays, present participle essaying, simple past and past participle essayed)
essay meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
essay in Hindi
- written composition
- निबंध nibandh
essay in Tamil
- கட்டுரை
essay in Marathi
- written composition
- निबंध nibandha
essay in Urdu
- written composition
- مَقالَہ maqāla, اِنْشائِیَہ inśāiya, مَضْمُون mazmūn
More languagesFewer languages
- essay in Bengali
- প্রবন্ধ probondho
- essay in Telugu
- వ్యాసము vyāsamu
- essay in Malayalam
- ഉപന്യാസം upanyāsaṁ
- essay in Kannada
- ಪೂನು, ಕಿರುಬರಹ, ಪ್ರಬಂಧ, ಸಣ್ಣಲೇಖನ
- essay in Punjabi
- ਨਿਬੰਧ
- essay in Gujarati
- નિબંધ nibandh
- essay in Assamese
- ৰচনা rosona
- essay in Nepali
- निबंध
- essay in Pashto
- مقاله maqāla
- essay in Tagalog
- sanaysay
- essay in Arabic
- مَقَالَة maqāla, بَحْث baḥṯ
- essay in Malay
- karangan
- essay in Indonesian
- esai
- essay in Thai
- ความเรียง kwaam-riiang, ข้อเขียน kɔ̂ɔ-kǐian
- essay in Vietnamese
- tiểu luận
- essay in Myanmar
- စာစီစာကုံး cacicakum:, စာတမ်းငယ် catam:ngai
Examples of essay in a sentence
- And however full of death and darkness their accounts had been, they'd at least essayed a certain personal honesty.1986, Samuel R. Delany, Joseph Beam, “The Possibility of Possibilities”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page...
- There were further hurdles to essay before she reached her destination.2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 22 May 2024:
Forms of essay
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | essays |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | essays |
| present participle | essaying |
| past participle | essayed |
| past | essayed |
Origin of essay
Since late 16th century, borrowed from Middle French essay, essai (“essay”), meaning coined by Montaigne at the same time, from the same words with the earlier meanings 'experiment; assay; attempt', from Old French essay, essai, assay, assai, from Latin exagium (“weight; weighing, testing on the balance”), from exigere + -ium.
From Middle French essayer, essaier, from Old French essaiier, essayer, essaier, assaiier, assayer, assaier, from essay, essai, assay, assai (“attempt; assay; experiment”) as above.
Words formed from essay
Phrases with essay
Words that rhyme with essay
Questions about essay
- What does essay mean?
- Essay means a written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
- What is essay in Hindi?
- Essay in Hindi is निबंध (nibandh). See Essay meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use essay in a sentence?
- And however full of death and darkness their accounts had been, they'd at least essayed a certain personal honesty.
- What part of speech is essay?
- Essay can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce essay?
- Essay is pronounced /ˈɛs.eɪ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of essay?
- The plural of essay is essays.
Words near essay in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: essay (page history and authors); essay (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); essay (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); essay (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); નિબંધ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); essay (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-essay.ogg.
Cite this entry: “essay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/essay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.