discursive
adjective
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The Latin verb discurrere meant "to run about", and from this word we get our word discursive, which often means rambling about over a wide range of topics. A discursive writing style generally isn't encouraged by writing teachers. But some of the great 19th-century writers, such as Charles Lamb and Thomas de Quincey, show that the discursive essay, especially when gracefully written and somewhat personal in tone, can be a pleasure to read. And the man often called the inventor of the essay, the great Michel de Montaigne, might touch on dozens of different topics in the course of a long discursive essay.
Examples of discursive in a Sentence
Pitchfork, 4 Dec. 2025
Set in the uneasy era between world wars, when shifts of all kinds are taking place — commercial radios sputtering to life, vaudeville theaters shutting down — Pynchon’s first novel in 12 years is a discursive comic pleasure.
—Emma Alpern, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
Her early fiction reads like discursive bricolage: not quite directionless, but scarcely linear.
—Victor J. Blue, Harpers Magazine, 23 Nov. 2025
For all the revelry, there was a tough, discursive seriousness in the approach that Lang and O’Hara took to their labors in the late forties and early fifties.
—Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for discursive
Cite this Entry
“Discursive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discursive. Accessed 13 Dec. 2025.
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discursive
adjective
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