prose
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Language, particularly written language, not intended as poetry.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
prohzIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɹoʊz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Language, particularly written language, not intended as poetry.
Language which evinces little imagination or animation; dull and commonplace discourse.
verb
To write or repeat in a dull, tedious, or prosy way.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Language, particularly written language, not intended as poetry.
Used this way, prose is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use prose
- “She prefers reading clear, engaging prose over complex poetry.”noun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.