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Synonyms of essayed

• as in tried
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Thesaurus Definition of essayed

Synonyms & Similar Words

• had a go at
• tried one's hand (at)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Thesaurus Entries Near essayed

Cite this entry.

“Essayed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/essayed. Accessed 24 Mar. 2024.

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Nglish: Translation of essayed for Spanish Speakers

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What does essayed mean?

Definitions for essayed es·sayed, this dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word essayed ., did you actually mean essayist or estate , chatgpt rate this definition: 0.0 / 0 votes.

Essayed is the past tense form of the verb "essay," which means to attempt, try, or undertake a task or activity, typically requiring some thought, effort, or skill. It refers to the act of writing or composing an essay, which is a short piece of non-fictional writing that presents a focused argument or analysis on a particular topic.

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How to pronounce essayed.

Alex US English David US English Mark US English Daniel British Libby British Mia British Karen Australian Hayley Australian Natasha Australian Veena Indian Priya Indian Neerja Indian Zira US English Oliver British Wendy British Fred US English Tessa South African

How to say essayed in sign language?

Chaldean Numerology

The numerical value of essayed in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

Pythagorean Numerology

The numerical value of essayed in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

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Translations for essayed

From our multilingual translation dictionary.

• essayed German
• ensayado Spanish
• megkísérelte Hungarian
• essayed Italian
• エッセイ Japanese
• పోషించారు Telugu

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a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.

anything resembling such a composition: a picture essay.

an effort to perform or accomplish something; attempt.

Philately . a design for a proposed stamp differing in any way from the design of the stamp as issued.

Obsolete . a tentative effort; trial; assay.

to try; attempt.

to put to the test; make trial of.

Origin of essay

Other words from essay.

• es·say·er, noun
• pre·es·say, verb (used without object)
• un·es·sayed, adjective
• well-es·sayed, adjective

Words that may be confused with essay

• assay , essay

Words Nearby essay

• essay question

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use essay in a sentence

As several of my colleagues commented, the result is good enough that it could pass for an essay written by a first-year undergraduate, and even get a pretty decent grade.

GPT-3 also raises concerns about the future of essay writing in the education system.

This little essay helps focus on self-knowledge in what you’re best at, and how you should prioritize your time.

As Steven Feldstein argues in the opening essay , technonationalism plays a part in the strengthening of other autocracies too.

He’s written a collection of essays on civil engineering life titled Bridginess, and to this day he and Lauren go on “bridge dates,” where they enjoy a meal and admire the view of a nearby span.

I think a certain kind of compelling essay has a piece of that.

The current attack on the Jews,” he wrote in a 1937 essay , “targets not just this people of 15 million but mankind as such.

The impulse to interpret seems to me what makes personal essay writing compelling.

To be honest, I think a lot of good essay writing comes out of that.

Someone recently sent me an old Joan Didion essay on self-respect that appeared in Vogue.

There is more of the uplifted forefinger and the reiterated point than I should have allowed myself in an essay .

Consequently he was able to turn in a clear essay upon the subject, which, upon examination, the king found to be free from error.

It is no part of the present essay to attempt to detail the particulars of a code of social legislation.

But angels and ministers of grace defend us from ministers of religion who essay art criticism!

It is fit that the imagination, which is free to go through all things, should essay such excursions.

British Dictionary definitions for essay

a short literary composition dealing with a subject analytically or speculatively

an attempt or endeavour; effort

a test or trial

to attempt or endeavour; try

to test or try out

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for essay

A short piece of writing on one subject, usually presenting the author's own views. Michel de Montaigne , Francis Bacon (see also Bacon ), and Ralph Waldo Emerson are celebrated for their essays.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• 1.1.1 Pronunciation
• 1.1.2.1 Derived terms
• 1.1.2.2 Related terms
• 1.1.2.3 Translations
• 1.2.1 Pronunciation
• 1.2.2.1 Translations
• 1.3 Anagrams
• 2.1 Etymology
• 2.2 Pronunciation
• 2.3.1 Hypernyms
• 2.3.2 Derived terms
• 2.3.3 Descendants
• 3.1 Etymology
• 3.2.1 Derived terms
• 3.3 References
• 4.1 Etymology
• 4.2.1 Derived terms
• 4.3 References

English [ edit ]

Etymology 1 [ edit ].

Since late 16th century, borrowed from Middle French essay , essai ( “ essay ” ) , meaning coined by Montaigne in the same time, from the same words in earlier meanings 'experiment; assay; attempt', from Old French essay , essai , assay , assai , from Latin exagium ( “ weight; weighing, testing on the balance ” ) , from exigere + -ium .

Pronunciation [ edit ]

• ( Received Pronunciation , General American ) IPA ( key ) : /ˈɛs.eɪ/ (1), IPA ( key ) : /ɛˈseɪ/ (2-4)
• Rhymes: -ɛseɪ
• Homophone : ese

Noun [ edit ]

essay ( plural essays )

• 2013 January, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist ‎ [1] , volume 101 , number 1, archived from the original on 9 February 2017 , page 64 : 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.”
• ( obsolete ) A test , experiment ; an assay .
• 1861 , E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley , page 16 : 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.
• 1988 , James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom , Oxford, published 2003 , page 455 : This was Lee's first essay in the kind of offensive-defensive strategy that was to become his hallmark.
• ( philately , finance ) A proposed design for a postage stamp or a banknote .

Derived terms [ edit ]

• argumentative essay
• automated essay scoring
• eight-legged essay
• essay question
• photo-essay
• photo essay

Related terms [ edit ]

Translations [ edit ], etymology 2 [ edit ].

From Middle French essayer , essaier , from Old French essaiier , essayer , essaier , assaiier , assayer , assaier , from essay , essai , assay , assai ( “ attempt; assay; experiment ” ) as above.

• ( UK , US ) IPA ( key ) : /ɛˈseɪ/

Verb [ edit ]

essay ( third-person singular simple present essays , present participle essaying , simple past and past participle essayed )

• 1900 , Charles W. Chesnutt , chapter II, in The House Behind the Cedars : He retraced his steps to the front gate, which he essayed to open.
• 1950 April, R. A. H. Weight, “They Passed by My Window”, in Railway Magazine , page 260 : The train took the slow to branch spur at the north end at a not much slower speed, then essayed the short sharply curved climb with a terrific roar, smoke rising straight from the chimney to a height of some 60 ft., the long train twisting and curling behind.
• ( intransitive ) To move forth, as into battle.

Anagrams [ edit ]

• Sayes , Seays , Sesay , eyass

Dutch [ edit ]

Etymology [ edit ].

Borrowed from English essay ( “ essay ” ) , from Middle French essai ( “ essay; attempt, assay ” ) , from Old French essai , from Latin exagium (whence the neuter gender).

• IPA ( key ) : /ɛˈseː/ , /ˈɛ.seː/
• Hyphenation: es‧say
• Rhymes: -eː

essay   n ( plural essays , diminutive essaytje   n )

Hypernyms [ edit ]

Descendants [ edit ], norwegian bokmål [ edit ].

Borrowed from English essay , from Middle French essai .

essay   n ( definite singular essayet , indefinite plural essay or essayer , definite plural essaya or essayene )

• an essay , a written composition of moderate length exploring a particular subject
• essaysamling

References [ edit ]

• “essay” in The Bokmål Dictionary .

Norwegian Nynorsk [ edit ]

essay   n ( definite singular essayet , indefinite plural essay , definite plural essaya )

• “essay” in The Nynorsk Dictionary .

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The British government wants to define extremism. Critics say it risks creating more division

Britain’s Prime Minster Rishi Sunak departs 10 Downing Street to go to the House of Commons for his weekly Prime Minister’s Questions in London, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Britain’s Minister for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, leaves the Millbank Studios in central London after taking part in the morning interview rounds, Thursday March 14, 2024. The British government published an official definition of “extremism” on Thursday, and said groups that get the label will be barred from receiving government funding. The government did not provide examples of extremist groups, and is not expected to publish a list of such organizations for some weeks. But Gove pointed to the threat from the extreme right and Islamic “extremists who are seeking to separate Muslims from the rest of society and create division within Muslim communities.” (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

FILE - Protesters hold up flags and placards during a demonstration in support of Palestinian people in Gaza, in London, on Feb. 17, 2024. The British government published an official definition of “extremism” on Thursday, March 14, 2024 and said groups that get the label will be barred from receiving government funding. Mass pro-Palestinian protests have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to central London to call for a cease-fire. The protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, though there have been dozens of arrests over signs and chants that police say showed support for the militant Hamas group, a banned organization in Britain. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)

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LONDON (AP) — The British government published a new official definition of “extremism” on Thursday, and said groups that get the label will be barred from receiving government funding.

The move is in response to a surge in reports of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate speech and what authorities call an increase in radicalization in Britain since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the war and Israel’s invasion of Gaza .

But critics say branding nonviolent groups as extremist could undermine freedom of speech and worship, or risk unfairly targeting some people, such as Muslims, and create more division.

The government defined extremism as “the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance” that aims to destroy others’ rights and freedoms or “undermine, overturn or replace the U.K.'s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights.”

Communities Secretary Michael Gove pointed in particular to threats from the extreme right and Islamic “extremists who are seeking to separate Muslims from the rest of society and create division within Muslim communities.”

“We are in no way intending to restrict freedom of expression, religion or belief, but the government cannot be in a position where, unwittingly or not, we sponsor, subsidize or support in any way organisations or individuals opposed to the freedoms we hold dear,” Gove told lawmakers.

Groups that raise concerns under the new definition include the British National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi organization, and the Muslim Association of Britain, the U.K. affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood, Gove said.

Authorities are expected to publish a list of such organizations in coming weeks. The new guidelines will not criminalize or ban the groups.

Islamic and civil liberties groups said they worried the definition would be used disproportionately on Muslims.

Qari Asim, chairman of the Mosques and Imams Advisory Board, said the proposed definition may not be applied consistently.

“If it’s left to people to apply any definition of extremism and call anyone extremist at their whim, then that is going to create huge division in our society,” he told the BBC.

The Muslim Council of Britain warned that the proposals were “undemocratic, divisive, and potentially illegal” and “may involve defining established Muslim organizations as extremist.”

“With elections looming, it’s unsurprising that the government is resorting to this desperate tactic in the culture war,” said Zara Mohammed, the group’s secretary general.

The Church of England’s most senior clerics also criticized the government’s plans, warning that the new definition of extremism threatens the right to worship and peaceful protest.

The announcement comes two weeks after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a rare televised speech outside 10 Downing Street to denounce “a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality,” which he linked to the Israel-Hamas war.

Reports of both antisemitic and anti-Muslim abuse in Britain have surged since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the war and Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Mass pro-Palestinian protests have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to central London to call for a cease-fire. The protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, though there have been dozens of arrests over signs and chants that police say showed support for the militant Hamas group, a banned organization in Britain. Police also arrested some right-wing counter-protesters and charged them with inciting racial hatred.

Jewish organizations and many lawmakers say the mass marches have created an intimidating atmosphere for Jewish Londoners, though members of the Jewish community have been among those on pro-cease-fire marches.

Gove said the new definition isn’t aimed at stopping protests.

“Today’s definition applies only to government and makes it clear that we will keep these organizations at arm’s length so they can’t benefit from access to government and its funds,” he said.

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Definition of essay noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

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By Sharon Otterman

A Columbia University task force set up to combat antisemitism on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks is attempting to avoid one of the most contentious issues in university debates over the war: Its members have refused to settle on what the definition of “antisemitism” is.

Competing factions on campus and beyond are pushing for two different definitions. The first , favored by the U.S. State Department and many supporters of Israel, says “targeting of the state of Israel” could be antisemitic, a definition that could label much of the pro-Palestinian activism sweeping campus as antisemitic.

The second is narrower. It distinguishes between anti-Zionism and antisemitism and could lead to criticism that the school is not taking antisemitism seriously enough.

The debate over the definitions has become a lightning rod for the Columbia task force and for other universities around the country. The task force is charged with “understanding how antisemitism manifests on campus” and improving the climate for Jewish faculty and students. But the refusal to pick a definition has also been met with harsh criticism on both sides.

“If you don’t diagnose the problem, you don’t have to deal with it,” said Shai Davidai, a Columbia professor who is Israeli and favors the more sweeping definition. He added, “Saying we don’t want to define it so we don’t have a problem, that’s copping out.”

Pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist faculty and students, quite a few of whom are Jewish, fear that without a definition, the antisemitism task force could be too sweeping in the speech and activity it seeks to regulate.

Columbia’s dilemma illustrates the broad challenge universities are facing as they attempt to walk a line between protecting free speech and avoiding discrimination lawsuits from Jewish students.

Universities are also facing enormous outside pressure. Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, and the co-chairs of its board of directors have been called to testify at a congressional hearing on antisemitism on April 17. Ms. Shafik did not attend the contentious December hearing where the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania struggled to answer questions about whether a call for the genocide of Jews would violate school policies.

Columbia has already been sued in a federal civil rights lawsuit , filed by more than a dozen Jewish students, which describes the university as an institution where “mobs of pro-Hamas students and faculty march by the hundreds shouting vile antisemitic slogans, including calls to genocide.”

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators dispute that chants like “By any means necessary” and “There is only one solution, intifada, revolution” are antisemitic calls to genocide.

For the task force, the university chose three Jewish professors as co-chairs because they are seasoned senior faculty who know how Columbia works. They are not academic experts in antisemitism research, however.

The professors argue that their 15-member task force does not need to define antisemitism, because they don’t see it as their task to label things as antisemitic or not. Rather, they want to hear why Jewish students and faculty are upset and see if there are practical solutions that can be found to help them feel more comfortable.

“I get letters from parents every single day, just regular people, students,” one of the co-chairs, Nicholas Lemann , a former dean of the journalism school, said in an interview. He said that many of them ask: “‘Why aren’t you listening? Why aren’t you doing anything?’”

“Our job is not to define antisemitism,” he said, adding, “Our job is to listen to them, make them feel that somebody at Columbia cares about them, and to try to figure out what is causing this great discomfort and distress, and whether anything can be done to ameliorate it that’s consistent with the values of the university.”

Pro-Israel Jewish advocacy groups have been pushing for years for organizations and governments to adopt the more sweeping definition developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance , which wraps in anti-Zionist speech. Since 2016, it has been endorsed by more than 40 countries, including Israel.

There is no dispute about the core of the definition — antisemitism, it states, is a “certain perception of Jews that may be expressed as hatred” toward them. But its examples about Israel can be broadly interpreted, in ways that critics say would unfairly silence political criticism.

For example, the definition says that “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” could be antisemitic.

Left-wing Jews often support the newer, Jerusalem Declaration definition, which takes a more tolerant approach toward criticism of Israel, including toward boycotts and sanctions of the Jewish state. Another definition, known as the Nexus Document , stands in the uneasy middle.

At Harvard and Stanford, antisemitism task force members have faced harsh criticism for not supporting the more sweeping definition; that tension was one reason the co-chair of the task force at Stanford decided to resign .

At Columbia, the task force chairs are trying to avoid falling into a similar trap. But fighting something without defining it could prove difficult.

“If you want to understand any issue and any problem, you need to have an understanding of what it is,” said Dov Waxman, an expert on antisemitism at UCLA. “You can’t count something if you’re not able to understand what it is.”

He recommended that the Columbia task force refer to more than one definition, as the Biden administration did last year in outlining its antisemitism strategy . The task force has not ruled out such a step, Mr. Lemann said.

Some of the Columbia task-force listening sessions on campus have become tense. At a March 1 session with graduate students, for example, several anti-Zionist Jews demanded to know what the definition of antisemitism would be and whether their views would be included in it.

Ester Fuchs , an urban policy professor and task force co-chair, interrupted them and became hostile, four students charged in a subsequent letter to Ms. Shafik and other administrators in which they called on Professor Fuchs to be replaced on the task force by an anti-Zionist.

Caitlin Liss, a Jewish graduate student who signed the letter, said she is part of a “long Jewish tradition of anti-Zionism” that includes many students at the school. But, she said, “you would never know that on campus from the way that the administration talks about it, from the way that the task force talks about it.”

Professor Fuchs said the students “attempted to disrupt the session and ignore its purpose — to listen to students’ concerns and experiences with antisemitism on campus.”

Joseph Howley, a Jewish classics professor and supporter of Columbia’s pro-Palestinian movement, was invited to attend a listening session, but didn’t go. “I have no reason to believe I’ll be taken seriously,” he said. In the end, only a few of the roughly 40 faculty members who had been invited to a listening session intended for critics of Israel attended.

In another session, Amy Werman, a professor at the School of Social Work who supports Israel, brought up a question about whether the task force might just be window dressing to appease Congress.

“Ester, oh, boy, she did not take to that kindly,” she said, referring to Professor Fuchs. “I would almost say I felt like she was attacking me.”

Professor Fuchs disputed that and said she had replied: “You obviously don’t know us. We have never been window dressing, and we don’t intend to be now.”

Still, at least some Jewish students who have felt ostracized or unsafe on campus have found the listening sessions helpful, said Rebecca Massel , a sophomore who covers antisemitism for The Columbia Spectator.

“It’s been an outlet for students to raise concerns,” she said.

The task force is now hiring a research director to develop a study on antisemitism at Columbia and recommend training materials for the university.

Earlier this month, it issued its first report. The 24-page document called for additional limits on protests and better enforcement of existing rules, to address a key complaint of Jewish students who say the environment at Columbia has become intolerable.

Protests were the first focus, Professor Fuchs said, because they are the “most overtly disruptive to life on campus and make people feel like they’re unsafe, like they’re unwelcome and they should find another place to go to school.”

As for whether some common anti-Israel protest chants like “Death to the Zionist State” could amount to discriminatory harassment of Jewish or Israeli students, the report largely punted, saying that was ultimately a question for lawyers.

In its report, the task force suggested the university take on the issue. “We urge the university to provide more guidance on the meaning of ‘discriminatory harassment,’ including antisemitic harassment,” the report said.

Under federal law, “our policy definition of discriminatory harassment needs to be general, not tailored only to protect Jews and Israelis,” said David M. Schizer, another co-chair and former dean of Columbia’s law school, explaining why the report didn’t define antisemitism in that context. “Otherwise, our policy might treat protected classes differently, which itself is a problem under federal law.”

Sharon Otterman is a Times reporter covering higher education, public health and other issues facing New York City. More about Sharon Otterman

Definition of 'essay'

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Meaning of essaying in English

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• give something your best shot idiom
• go after someone
• go all out idiom
• go down swinging/fighting idiom
• go for someone
• shoot for the moon idiom
• shoot the works idiom
• smarten (someone/something) up
• smarten up your act idiom
• square the circle idiom

Word of the Day

Punch and Judy show

a traditional children's entertainment in which a man, Mr Punch, argues with his wife, Judy. It was especially popular in the past as entertainment in British towns by the sea in summer.

Paying attention and listening intently: talking about concentration

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