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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

prose.

Language, particularly written language, not intended as poetry.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɹəʊz/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹoʊz/General-American
  1. Language, particularly written language, not intended as poetry.

    uncountable · usually
    Though known mostly for her prose, she also produced a small body of excellent poems.
  2. Language which evinces little imagination or animation; dull and commonplace discourse.

    uncountable · usually
  3. A hymn with no regular meter, sometimes introduced into the Mass.

    uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From Middle English prose, from Old French prose, from Latin prōsa (“straightforward”) from the term prōsa ōrātiō (“a straightforward speech – i.e. without the ornaments of verse”). further etymology and related terms The term prōsa (“straightforward”), a colloquial form of prorsa (“straight forwards”), the feminine form prorsus (“straight forwards”), from Old Latin prōvorsus (“moving straight ahead”), from pro- (“forward”) + vorsus (“turned”), form of vertō (“to turn”). Compare verse.

verb/ˈpɹəʊz/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹoʊz/General-American
  1. To write or repeat in a dull, tedious, or prosy way.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English prose, from Old French prose, from Latin prōsa (“straightforward”) from the term prōsa ōrātiō (“a straightforward speech – i.e. without the ornaments of verse”). further etymology and related terms The term prōsa (“straightforward”), a colloquial form of prorsa (“straight forwards”), the feminine form prorsus (“straight forwards”), from Old Latin prōvorsus (“moving straight ahead”), from pro- (“forward”) + vorsus (“turned”), form of vertō (“to turn”). Compare verse.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.