prose
1 of 4noun
ˈprōz 
1
a
: the ordinary language people use in speaking or writing
b
: a literary medium distinguished from poetry especially by its greater irregularity and variety of rhythm and its closer correspondence to the patterns of everyday speech
2
: a dull or ordinary style, quality, or condition
prose
2 of 4adjective
1
: of, relating to, or written in prose
2
: prosaic
prose
3 of 4verb
prosed; prosing
intransitive verb
1
: to write prose
2
: to write or speak in a dull or ordinary manner
pro se
4 of 4adjective or adverb
ˈprō-ˈsā
-ˈsē
: on one's own behalf : without an attorney
a pro se action
a defendant's right to proceed pro se
Example Sentences
Noun … the esteemed critic James Wood reaches out to assure "the common reader" … that his prose is as free as he can make it of what James Joyce termed "the true scholastic stink" of so much academic writing. 
Walter Kirn, New York Times Book Review, 17 Aug. 2008 Like many two-person writing teams, this one produces its share of three-legged prose and redundancy. James McManus, New York Times Book Review, 15 Apr. 2001 In my own work I felt a need to hurry from climax as in film montage, or even in Joycean prose with its strings of firecracker words … Arthur Miller, Timebends, 1987 She writes in very clear prose. Verb 'In the meantime,' said Traddles, coming back to his chair; 'and this is the end of my prosing about myself, I get on as well as I can. I don't make much, but I don't spend much … ' Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1850
Walter Kirn, New York Times Book Review, 17 Aug. 2008 Like many two-person writing teams, this one produces its share of three-legged prose and redundancy. James McManus, New York Times Book Review, 15 Apr. 2001 In my own work I felt a need to hurry from climax as in film montage, or even in Joycean prose with its strings of firecracker words … Arthur Miller, Timebends, 1987 She writes in very clear prose. Verb 'In the meantime,' said Traddles, coming back to his chair; 'and this is the end of my prosing about myself, I get on as well as I can. I don't make much, but I don't spend much … ' Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1850 Recent Examples on the Web Stuart Munro, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2022 In the starched prose style of a naturalist, the wizard detailed nearly two decades of spirit conjurations and regular interactions with ancient evil entities such as Paimon and Belial. Kent Russell, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022 In Night Sky, there are prose poems split into short fragments, or broken up by slashes, techniques that disorient or induce discomfort in the reader. WSJ, 29 Mar. 2022 In her prose -- an Easter egg hunt of digital culture slang and meme references -- Lockwood blurs the boundaries between tweets and thoughts, emphasizing the indelible mark online life has left on the human psyche. Leah Dolan, CNN, 18 June 2021 But there’s a moment before incapacitation, but after considerable consumption, where a drinker’s thoughts seem to sharpen, heighten, and laser in, and that’s the state Lafferty sustains, somewhat impossibly, in his prose. Jason Kehe, Wired, 3 Mar. 2021 In his prose, Fiennes leads readers on an unforgettable odyssey that crisscrosses the English countryside, uncovering the favorite haunts of authors such as Enid Blyton and Charles Dickens. Jennifer Nalewicki, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Mar. 2020 At multiple points in Telluria, the prose snowballs, as here, into a relentless maximalism that parodies the suprarational language of the early–twentieth-century futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov. Aaron Timms, The New Republic, 2 Sep. 2022 If at times the book’s subject matter is complex, particularly for anyone whose last exposure to biology was in high school, the clarity of Mr. Foster’s spirited prose is welcome, as are his wry humor and contagious sense of wonder. A. Roger Ekirch, WSJ, 28 Aug. 2022 New York Times, 22 July 2022 The biblical texts of these four are more prose than poetry, and Burton and Garritson shaped them into an expressive arc from chaos and despair to acceptance and peace, landing in the purpose of a life lived with love. Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 26 May 2022 Striking prose and unforgettable characters—including a young Black woman in relentless pursuit of justice—make for a shocking page-turner and timely reflection. Véronique Hyland, ELLE, 18 May 2022 In the second half of his career, Auden patiently worked out, in both prose and masterful verse, the implications of his homemade anthropology—his own account of what his friend Hannah Arendt would later call, in a 1958 book, The Human Condition. Alan Jacobs, Harper’s Magazine , 27 Apr. 2022 In an evening filled with prose and literary imagination, a monthly community reading series in New York City's Chinatown became an outlet for Asian women writers to share their voices. Jean Song, CBS News, 20 Apr. 2022 Many reviewers took this idea literally, treating the book less as literature than as a prose equivalent of a TV show. Adam Kirsch, The New Republic, 22 Mar. 2022 It’s a family saga that combines the denseness of prose fiction with the specific advantages of television. Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 11 Mar. 2022 Her new novel is a genre bender: a murder story whose prose sings and snickers and soars as engagingly as Chang’s literary fiction. Washington Post, 29 Jan. 2022 San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Aug. 2022 If finding new authors to read, learning about the publishing industry, or workshopping your own poetry or prose sounds appealing to you, head to Nubian Square this weekend for the inaugural Greater Roxbury Book Fair and Writers Fest. Maya Homan, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Aug. 2022 Sea of Strangers is an earnest and raw collection of poetry and prose that pushes the reader to think about self-discovery and love. Swarna Gowtham, Town & Country, 1 Aug. 2022 The ensuing tale illustrates in compelling prose the intriguing intangibility of the musician’s life and work. Chris Wheatley, Longreads, 31 July 2022 Youngson’s gentle tone, prose packed with British witticisms, and terrifically realized characters delighted me. The Atlantic, 16 May 2022 But his spare, precise, deceivingly matter of fact prose often invites readers to join the dots, considering the elliptical concatenation of events, or finding resonance in seemingly casual dialog. John Hopewell, Variety, 27 Apr. 2022 Etiwanda stands out Hearts pumping, blood rushing through their veins in the pregame locker room before a game, the Etiwanda girls’ basketball players turns to prose. Eric Sondheimer Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 7 Feb. 2022 With these searching long poems and prose sketches, Sebald was reaching for a different kind of writing—an antidote to the silence in German life, and to the hypocrisy in German literature, that drove him to the margins of his discipline. Max Norman, The New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2021 Cory Shaffer, cleveland, 7 June 2022 Navarro was previously pro se and representing himself. Ali Dukakis, ABC News, 17 June 2022 The lawsuits were filed pro se, meaning that the plaintiffs represented themselves without the help of attorneys. cleveland, 8 June 2022 Using pro se, activists speak freely in ways that might get a real lawyer professionally reprimanded. Carole Sargent, The Conversation, 8 Dec. 2021 Recently, representing herself pro se, Ms. Hettara tried to use Ms. Ratajkowski’s allegations to have her custody restored. Jessica Testa, New York Times, 12 Nov. 2020 The proportion of civil cases wherein one party is unrepresented, or pro se, has grown massively since the 1970s. Kathryn Joyce, The New Republic, 22 June 2020 Represent yourself in court pro se, or on your own behalf, with caution. New York Times, 18 Apr. 2020 By 2012 Judge Norko was instrumental in Limited Scope Representation becoming a reality, that is participation by lawyers on parts of pro se cases to unclog the court system. courant.com, 1 Sep. 2019 See More
Noun
The constant is her singular lyrical approach — prose poems that capture interior moments, passing thoughts, snippets of interaction, to captivating effect. Stuart Munro, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2022 In the starched prose style of a naturalist, the wizard detailed nearly two decades of spirit conjurations and regular interactions with ancient evil entities such as Paimon and Belial. Kent Russell, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022 In Night Sky, there are prose poems split into short fragments, or broken up by slashes, techniques that disorient or induce discomfort in the reader. WSJ, 29 Mar. 2022 In her prose -- an Easter egg hunt of digital culture slang and meme references -- Lockwood blurs the boundaries between tweets and thoughts, emphasizing the indelible mark online life has left on the human psyche. Leah Dolan, CNN, 18 June 2021 But there’s a moment before incapacitation, but after considerable consumption, where a drinker’s thoughts seem to sharpen, heighten, and laser in, and that’s the state Lafferty sustains, somewhat impossibly, in his prose. Jason Kehe, Wired, 3 Mar. 2021 In his prose, Fiennes leads readers on an unforgettable odyssey that crisscrosses the English countryside, uncovering the favorite haunts of authors such as Enid Blyton and Charles Dickens. Jennifer Nalewicki, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Mar. 2020 At multiple points in Telluria, the prose snowballs, as here, into a relentless maximalism that parodies the suprarational language of the early–twentieth-century futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov. Aaron Timms, The New Republic, 2 Sep. 2022 If at times the book’s subject matter is complex, particularly for anyone whose last exposure to biology was in high school, the clarity of Mr. Foster’s spirited prose is welcome, as are his wry humor and contagious sense of wonder. A. Roger Ekirch, WSJ, 28 Aug. 2022 Adjective
An original story rather than one of the transformations of existing material that currently clog the opera world, her text is largely prose, and never purple; modest arias arise naturally out of the dialogue. New York Times, 22 July 2022 The biblical texts of these four are more prose than poetry, and Burton and Garritson shaped them into an expressive arc from chaos and despair to acceptance and peace, landing in the purpose of a life lived with love. Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 26 May 2022 Striking prose and unforgettable characters—including a young Black woman in relentless pursuit of justice—make for a shocking page-turner and timely reflection. Véronique Hyland, ELLE, 18 May 2022 In the second half of his career, Auden patiently worked out, in both prose and masterful verse, the implications of his homemade anthropology—his own account of what his friend Hannah Arendt would later call, in a 1958 book, The Human Condition. Alan Jacobs, Harper’s Magazine , 27 Apr. 2022 In an evening filled with prose and literary imagination, a monthly community reading series in New York City's Chinatown became an outlet for Asian women writers to share their voices. Jean Song, CBS News, 20 Apr. 2022 Many reviewers took this idea literally, treating the book less as literature than as a prose equivalent of a TV show. Adam Kirsch, The New Republic, 22 Mar. 2022 It’s a family saga that combines the denseness of prose fiction with the specific advantages of television. Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 11 Mar. 2022 Her new novel is a genre bender: a murder story whose prose sings and snickers and soars as engagingly as Chang’s literary fiction. Washington Post, 29 Jan. 2022 Verb
The result of their efforts is a slick new monthly literary periodical — an upscale compendium of original poetry, prose, graphic arts, photography, cartoons, comics, reviews and features by local, national and globally recognized artists. San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Aug. 2022 If finding new authors to read, learning about the publishing industry, or workshopping your own poetry or prose sounds appealing to you, head to Nubian Square this weekend for the inaugural Greater Roxbury Book Fair and Writers Fest. Maya Homan, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Aug. 2022 Sea of Strangers is an earnest and raw collection of poetry and prose that pushes the reader to think about self-discovery and love. Swarna Gowtham, Town & Country, 1 Aug. 2022 The ensuing tale illustrates in compelling prose the intriguing intangibility of the musician’s life and work. Chris Wheatley, Longreads, 31 July 2022 Youngson’s gentle tone, prose packed with British witticisms, and terrifically realized characters delighted me. The Atlantic, 16 May 2022 But his spare, precise, deceivingly matter of fact prose often invites readers to join the dots, considering the elliptical concatenation of events, or finding resonance in seemingly casual dialog. John Hopewell, Variety, 27 Apr. 2022 Etiwanda stands out Hearts pumping, blood rushing through their veins in the pregame locker room before a game, the Etiwanda girls’ basketball players turns to prose. Eric Sondheimer Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 7 Feb. 2022 With these searching long poems and prose sketches, Sebald was reaching for a different kind of writing—an antidote to the silence in German life, and to the hypocrisy in German literature, that drove him to the margins of his discipline. Max Norman, The New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2021 Adjective or adverb
Bryant then asked the Ohio Supreme Court to take up his case in a pro se filing, without the assistance of an attorney, and the court accepted. Cory Shaffer, cleveland, 7 June 2022 Navarro was previously pro se and representing himself. Ali Dukakis, ABC News, 17 June 2022 The lawsuits were filed pro se, meaning that the plaintiffs represented themselves without the help of attorneys. cleveland, 8 June 2022 Using pro se, activists speak freely in ways that might get a real lawyer professionally reprimanded. Carole Sargent, The Conversation, 8 Dec. 2021 Recently, representing herself pro se, Ms. Hettara tried to use Ms. Ratajkowski’s allegations to have her custody restored. Jessica Testa, New York Times, 12 Nov. 2020 The proportion of civil cases wherein one party is unrepresented, or pro se, has grown massively since the 1970s. Kathryn Joyce, The New Republic, 22 June 2020 Represent yourself in court pro se, or on your own behalf, with caution. New York Times, 18 Apr. 2020 By 2012 Judge Norko was instrumental in Limited Scope Representation becoming a reality, that is participation by lawyers on parts of pro se cases to unclog the court system. courant.com, 1 Sep. 2019 See More Word History
Etymology
Noun, Adjective, and Verb
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin prosa, from feminine of prorsus, prosus, straightforward, being in prose, contraction of proversus, past participle of provertere to turn forward, from pro- forward + vertere to turn — more at pro-, worth
Adjective or adverb
Latin
First Known Use
Noun
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Adjective
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Verb
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Adjective Or Adverb
1861, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing prose
Kids Definition
prose
noun
ˈprōz
1
: the ordinary language that people use in speaking or writing
2
: writing without the repeating rhythm that is used in poetry
Legal Definition
pro se
adverb or adjective
ˈprō-ˈsā, -ˈsē
: on one's own behalf : without an attorney
a defendant's right to proceed pro se
a pro se action
prose
adjective
as in unpoetic
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
- unpoetic
- prosaic
- literal
- antipoetic
- factual
- matter-of-fact
- unlyrical
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- poetic
- poetical
- lyrical
- lyric
- rhythmic
- rhythmical
- bardic
- metric
- metrical
- poeticized
- rhyming
- rhapsodic
- riming
- rhapsodical