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Definition of essay
(Entry 1 of 2)
Definition of essay (Entry 2 of 2)
transitive verb
- composition
attempt , try , endeavor , essay , strive mean to make an effort to accomplish an end.
attempt stresses the initiation or beginning of an effort.
try is often close to attempt but may stress effort or experiment made in the hope of testing or proving something.
endeavor heightens the implications of exertion and difficulty.
essay implies difficulty but also suggests tentative trying or experimenting.
strive implies great exertion against great difficulty and specifically suggests persistent effort.
Examples of essay in a Sentence
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'essay.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Middle French essai , ultimately from Late Latin exagium act of weighing, from Latin ex- + agere to drive — more at agent
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 4
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2
Phrases Containing essay
- photo - essay
- essay question
Articles Related to essay
To 'Essay' or 'Assay'?
You'll know the difference if you give it the old college essay
Dictionary Entries Near essay
Cite this entry.
“Essay.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/essay. Accessed 6 Apr. 2024.
Kids Definition
Kids definition of essay.
Kids Definition of essay (Entry 2 of 2)
More from Merriam-Webster on essay
Nglish: Translation of essay for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of essay for Arabic Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about essay
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Meaning of essay in English
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- I want to finish off this essay before I go to bed .
- His essay was full of spelling errors .
- Have you given that essay in yet ?
- Have you handed in your history essay yet ?
- I'd like to discuss the first point in your essay.
- boilerplate
- composition
- dissertation
- essay question
- peer review
- go after someone
- go all out idiom
- go down swinging/fighting idiom
- go for it idiom
- go for someone
- shoot the works idiom
- smarten (someone/something) up
- smarten up your act idiom
- square the circle idiom
- step on the gas idiom
essay | Intermediate English
Examples of essay, collocations with essay.
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Translations of essay
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Word of the Day
your bread and butter
a job or activity that provides you with the money you need to live
Shoots, blooms and blossom: talking about plants
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The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of more than 600,000 words—past and present—from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books.
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December 2023 update.
Our latest update: The latest update to the Oxford English Dictionary includes more than 500 new and revised words, phrases, and senses, including nice-to-have , swear jar , and with a cherry on top .
New word notes: Learn more about the words added to the OED this quarter in our new words notes by OED Editor, Chris Spathis.
Release notes : Learn about the history and development of the word slang , looking back to its origins in the criminal underworld, in this article by OED Senior Editor, Jonathan Dent.
Platform updates: learn about updates to the OED website for the OED December 2023 update here .
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Using Word Definitions in Formal Essays: Incorporation and Citation
by Robbie Glen
A side note on titles and abbreviations: This abbreviated title rule does not always apply for the body of your paper. The OED may be called the OED in the body because, although it is an abbreviated form, people actually call it this (at least this is my explanation). Generally, abbreviated titles are only acceptable within citations, e.g. a paper on Love's Labour's Lost, while referring to the entire title in the prose, may, after the play has been identified, thereafter cite simply by using LLL followed by the act, scene and line number(s). However, the author would not say, "When the acting company first performed LLL ?"-this is too informal, and while I have seen it done, it is rare and best avoided for our purposes. When we get into writing papers that compare and contrast multiple texts from this course, you'll be able to abbreviate Fight Club as FC and The Talented Mr. Ripley as TTMR in your citations, after the first time you've identified the text by its full name. In general, one word titles are not truncated to a single letter, so we won't be representing Vertigo as V .
I've attached the OED 's entry for sympathy as a noun; as you'll see, there are four main definitions, and #1 and #3 have sub-definitions. The citation I use above shows my reader that I am referring first to the entry for sympathy as a noun, secondly that it is definition number 3, and thirdly that it is sub-definition d. Citing so specifically is crucial, especially since differences between various definitions can often be maddeningly subtle on first examination. If you are using a definition to shape or support your argument, you want to eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding on the part of your reader.
Here is the link to the definition of Sympathy as a noun.
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Isekai, the Popular Manga and Anime Genre, Is Now in the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford's definition of isekai hints at a shift in the popular anime genre's original definition..
According to The Guardian , The Oxford English Dictionary's latest update added 23 Japanese words to its lexicon. Included among these Japanese terms like is one of the most popular anime genres: isekai.
Oxford English Dictionary's official website defines isekai as "a Japanese genre of science or fantasy fiction featuring a protagonist who is transported to or reincarnated in a different, strange, or unfamiliar world."
While Isekai has been colloquially understood in the U.S.anime community as an genre where a character is teleported into a fantasy world — be it through a VR device à la Sword Art Online or vehicular incidents with a white truck , the term has been slightly misapplied. According to the Tokyo-based Twitch streamer Celina, isekai's means "the story takes place in a totally different world from our real world." Meaning classic fantasy shows fans wouldn't consider to be isekai like Record of Lodoss War and contemporary anime like Delicious in Dungeon and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End could be considered isekai. Turns out the anime community's popularized definition of isekai is referring to its sub-genre.
"If it's some modern dude getting reincarnated to another world, it's called isekaitensei," Celina wrote on X/Twitter .
Celina continued in the thread, saying isekai's original definition doesn't just restrict itself to a fantasy setting either, meaning sci-fi stories can technically be an isekai as well. By that logic, Square Enix's 2017 action role-playing game, Nier: Automata , was an isekai before Sword Art Online studio A-1 Pictures turned it into anime last year .
This would probably explain why the popular fantasy anime Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation isn't called Musoku Isekai. However, other upcoming anime like the aptly titled Suicide Squad Isekai doesn't help clear up the anime community's ongoing confusion over the word's proper definition.
Grammatical history lesson aside, the Oxford dictionary will likely not have to iimmediately make an addendum to its definition on isekai. According to The Guardian , editors at the Oxford English Dictionary collaborated with researchers from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies to define isekai and other commonly borrowed cooking-related Japanese words like katsu. This would suggest the word's original definition has shiftted from its originial meaning to fit with anime fan's populalrized misuse of its subgenre. To be fair, isekai rolls off the tongue easier.
If you take anything away from this article — aside from isekai being recognized in the Oxford dicionary of course — Nintendo and Ilumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the second most successful isekai movie ever, coming second to Studio Ghibli's Golden Globe and Oscar award-winning film, The Boy and The Heron .
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
COMMENTS
Definition of essay noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
During the years that followed, Hurston wrote novels, essays, articles, and plays. He's since written many novels, and essays, and short stories. However, he continued to write poems, short stories, essays, and novels when he found time. Each section centers around a theme and is introduced with a short essay by one of the editors.
ESSAY definition: 1. a short piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one done by students as part of the…. Learn more.
Oxford English Dictionary. The historical English dictionary. An unsurpassed guide for researchers in any discipline to the meaning, history, and usage of over 500,000 words and phrases across the English-speaking world. ... Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence ...
The meaning of ESSAY is an analytic or interpretative literary composition usually dealing with its subject from a limited or personal point of view. How to use essay in a sentence. Synonym Discussion of Essay.
The largest and most trusted free online dictionary for learners of British and American English with definitions, pictures, example sentences, synonyms, antonyms, word origins, audio pronunciation, and more. Look up the meanings of words, abbreviations, phrases, and idioms in our free English Dictionary.
ESSAY meaning: 1. a short piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one done by students as part of the…. Learn more.
a very large historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press.It is one of the most famous dictionaries in the world, well known for including many different meanings of words, and for giving real examples to show how each word was originally used and how its meaning has changed through time.
OED Description. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of more than 600,000 words—past and present—from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from ...
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide
What to call the OED: The first time you refer to the dictionary in your paper, use the full title: the Oxford English Dictionary. After the first time (which may come in the body of a paragraph or in a citation), then you may use the abbreviation OED throughout. A side note on titles and abbreviations: This abbreviated title rule does not ...
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Posted: Mar 28, 2024 12:16 pm. According to The Guardian, The Oxford English Dictionary's latest update added 23 Japanese words to its lexicon. Included among these Japanese terms like is one of ...