Prose Meaning
/ˈpɹəʊz/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounLanguage, particularly written language, not intended as poetry.
nounLanguage which evinces little imagination or animation; dull and commonplace discourse.
Sentence Examples
That poem mixes prose with poetry.
This poem reads like a piece of prose.
but some of it is in prose.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The author is known for his beautiful ____, not for writing poems.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She preferred writing ____ to poetry because she felt it gave her more freedom to develop ideas.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"...Or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow’d
Faft by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th’ Ionian Mounts while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime..."
— 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost (1st ed):
"...the vehicle is plodding prose, but the effect is none the less poignant. And in regard to this I may say that in a hundred places in Trollope the extremity of pathos is reached by the homeliest means."
— 1888, Henry James, Partial Portraits, Macmillan:
"Proses are parts of the Office of the Mass which are sung just before the Gospel, upon great Festivals. The French also call those Rhythmical Hymns Proses, which are sung in their Offices in the Church of Rome, in which Rhime only, and not Quantity of Syllables, is observed."
— 1699, A new ecclesiastical history:
"Pray, do not prose, good Ethelbert, but speak;
What is your purpose?"
— 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act I, scene II, verses 189-190:
"Already he felt himself near to being a celebrity. He had astonished Eton. That was a good beginning. Papa might prose, knowing, of course, nothing of the poetry of caricature, of the wild joys and the laurels that crown the whimsical. So while Mr. Lane hunted adjectives, and ran sad-sounding and damnatory substantives to earth, Eustace hugged himself, and secretly chuckled over his pilgrim's progress towards the pages of Vanity Fair."
— 1896, Robert Smythe Hichens, The Folly of Eustace:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The author is known for his beautiful ____, not for writing poems.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She preferred writing ____ to poetry because she felt it gave her more freedom to develop ideas.