prosed; prosing
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
Examples of prose in a Sentence
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 WebKate Knibbs, WIRED, 4 Apr. 2024
On top of that: Much of Bulgakov’s novel depends on his prose — his extraordinary prose, down to the punctuation.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 1 Apr. 2024
His prose was so evocative and original that he was frequently mentioned in the same breath as three other top sci-fi writers of his generation — Gregory Benford, Greg Bear and David Brin.
—Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Mar. 2024
His ear for language was evident in his oratory and in his prose.
—Danielle Amir Jackson, The Atlantic, 26 Mar. 2024
Already apparent is the studied and graceful clumsiness for which his prose is renowned.
—Benjamin Kunkel, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024
That the prose doesn’t soar is the point: thick with explication, the sentences are sandbags, loaded onto the page to drive home the cumulative weight of work.
—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2024
Nolan dissects the country’s recent history without succumbing to the sanitizing impulse of much academic prose, and without overdramatizing what could easily be maudlin: babies whisked away from families and disappeared into distant lands.
—John Washington, Harper's Magazine, 26 Feb. 2024
His explorations of identity and self-definition, of the importance of the oral tradition in literature, and of his Kiowa heritage were interwoven with reverent evocations of landscape in passages of soaring lyrical prose.
—John Motyka, New York Times, 29 Jan. 2024
Joanna Biggs, Harper's Magazine, 10 Jan. 2024
His prose choices create a friendly, highly accessible understanding of character and setting.
—Amy Brady, Scientific American, 14 Dec. 2023
Read the rhymes as prose or sing it as a song and enjoy the escalating silliness with each animal the monster swallows.
—Laura Denby, Parents, 30 Nov. 2023
And your prose style is so different from your songwriting style, in certain regards.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 22 Nov. 2023
As always, Barry is a prose stylist of near-miraculous skill, turning out crystalline sentence after crystalline sentence without ever leaving or betraying his protagonist’s perspective.
—Washington Post Staff, Washington Post, 25 Aug. 2023
There was a lot of freedom; this was going to be a cinematic telling of the story as opposed to a prose journalism telling of the story.
—Jamie Ducharme, TIME, 12 Oct. 2023
Toggling between the perspective of a father and a daughter, fittingly, the film explores O’Connor’s preoccupations, prose, and creative process.
—Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 12 Sep. 2023
The book, in poetry, prose, and artwork, holds an enormous amount of wisdom, too.
—Nina MacLaughlin, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2023
Christopher Beam, WIRED, 14 Sep. 2023
Every January, students across the country craft speeches for poetry and prose contests to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy.
—Clarence Williams, Washington Post, 18 Jan. 2024
Remember Love by Cleo Wade (Harmony: $26) Poetry and prose on enduring tough times through self-love.
8.
—The California Independent Booksellers Alliance, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2023
The implication is that the harder the squeeze, the sweeter the juice—that there’s virtue in staring down the empty page, taming it, forcing it to give way to prose.
—Christopher Beam, WIRED, 14 Sep. 2023
With its ability to pump out confident, humanlike prose almost instantaneously, ChatGPT is a valuable cheating tool for students who want to outsource their writing assignments.
—Lauren Leffer, Scientific American, 25 Aug. 2023
Director Monty Cole provides a cinematic approach to Kennedy’s latest work depicting the Black experience in 20th century America, combining monologues, voice-overs, dialogues and prose in this experimental thriller.
—Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2023
Bullets or prose?
—Robin Elledge, Forbes, 21 June 2022
Krieps plays the titular Austrian Bachmann, one of the most renowned German-language poetry and prose writers of the 20th century.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 19 Feb. 2023
Ryan Oehrli, Charlotte Observer, 20 Feb. 2024
At the trial, Southerland was representing himself pro se, which meant that during his cross-examination, Jordan had to answer questions posed by the same man who had intimidated him and lied to him as a child and who would later be convicted of murdering his mother.
—Seyward Darby, Longreads, 24 Jan. 2024
Victor Williams, pro se, was on the brief for amicus curiae Law Professor Victor Williams in support of appellant.
—Cnn.com, The Mercury News, 6 Feb. 2024
Among them are several men whose pro se petitions the 5th Circuit had ignored.
—Anat Rubin, ProPublica, 4 Nov. 2023
This model takes a novel approach to legal coaching, applying classical business coaching principles to business matters, departing from the traditional focus on pro se dispute resolution.
—Jon Stojan, USA TODAY, 24 July 2023
My background predominantly was in economic development, also assisted inmates on Rikers Island, doing their pro se litigation motions.
—Joe Weisenthal, Bloomberg.com, 20 Apr. 2023
Experts at the clinic taught immigrants how to represent themselves in court without a lawyer — or in legal language, pro se.
—Dallas News, 20 Dec. 2022
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
Noun
Programming and writing assistants offer shortcuts for crafting code and prose.
—Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 4 Apr. 2024
On top of that: Much of Bulgakov’s novel depends on his prose — his extraordinary prose, down to the punctuation.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 1 Apr. 2024
His prose was so evocative and original that he was frequently mentioned in the same breath as three other top sci-fi writers of his generation — Gregory Benford, Greg Bear and David Brin.
—Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Mar. 2024
His ear for language was evident in his oratory and in his prose.
—Danielle Amir Jackson, The Atlantic, 26 Mar. 2024
Already apparent is the studied and graceful clumsiness for which his prose is renowned.
—Benjamin Kunkel, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024
That the prose doesn’t soar is the point: thick with explication, the sentences are sandbags, loaded onto the page to drive home the cumulative weight of work.
—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2024
Nolan dissects the country’s recent history without succumbing to the sanitizing impulse of much academic prose, and without overdramatizing what could easily be maudlin: babies whisked away from families and disappeared into distant lands.
—John Washington, Harper's Magazine, 26 Feb. 2024
His explorations of identity and self-definition, of the importance of the oral tradition in literature, and of his Kiowa heritage were interwoven with reverent evocations of landscape in passages of soaring lyrical prose.
—John Motyka, New York Times, 29 Jan. 2024
Adjective
The style was archaic, Elizabethan even, not prose and yet not quite poetry.
—Joanna Biggs, Harper's Magazine, 10 Jan. 2024
His prose choices create a friendly, highly accessible understanding of character and setting.
—Amy Brady, Scientific American, 14 Dec. 2023
Read the rhymes as prose or sing it as a song and enjoy the escalating silliness with each animal the monster swallows.
—Laura Denby, Parents, 30 Nov. 2023
And your prose style is so different from your songwriting style, in certain regards.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 22 Nov. 2023
As always, Barry is a prose stylist of near-miraculous skill, turning out crystalline sentence after crystalline sentence without ever leaving or betraying his protagonist’s perspective.
—Washington Post Staff, Washington Post, 25 Aug. 2023
There was a lot of freedom; this was going to be a cinematic telling of the story as opposed to a prose journalism telling of the story.
—Jamie Ducharme, TIME, 12 Oct. 2023
Toggling between the perspective of a father and a daughter, fittingly, the film explores O’Connor’s preoccupations, prose, and creative process.
—Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 12 Sep. 2023
The book, in poetry, prose, and artwork, holds an enormous amount of wisdom, too.
—Nina MacLaughlin, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2023
Verb
That could mean suggesting edits to prose and structure, or highlighting what else has been written on the subject and offering counterarguments.
—Christopher Beam, WIRED, 14 Sep. 2023
Every January, students across the country craft speeches for poetry and prose contests to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy.
—Clarence Williams, Washington Post, 18 Jan. 2024
Remember Love by Cleo Wade (Harmony: $26) Poetry and prose on enduring tough times through self-love.
8.
—The California Independent Booksellers Alliance, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2023
The implication is that the harder the squeeze, the sweeter the juice—that there’s virtue in staring down the empty page, taming it, forcing it to give way to prose.
—Christopher Beam, WIRED, 14 Sep. 2023
With its ability to pump out confident, humanlike prose almost instantaneously, ChatGPT is a valuable cheating tool for students who want to outsource their writing assignments.
—Lauren Leffer, Scientific American, 25 Aug. 2023
Director Monty Cole provides a cinematic approach to Kennedy’s latest work depicting the Black experience in 20th century America, combining monologues, voice-overs, dialogues and prose in this experimental thriller.
—Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2023
Bullets or prose?
—Robin Elledge, Forbes, 21 June 2022
Krieps plays the titular Austrian Bachmann, one of the most renowned German-language poetry and prose writers of the 20th century.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 19 Feb. 2023
Adjective or adverb
As is typical for pro se lawsuits, most have been dismissed quickly.
—Ryan Oehrli, Charlotte Observer, 20 Feb. 2024
At the trial, Southerland was representing himself pro se, which meant that during his cross-examination, Jordan had to answer questions posed by the same man who had intimidated him and lied to him as a child and who would later be convicted of murdering his mother.
—Seyward Darby, Longreads, 24 Jan. 2024
Victor Williams, pro se, was on the brief for amicus curiae Law Professor Victor Williams in support of appellant.
—Cnn.com, The Mercury News, 6 Feb. 2024
Among them are several men whose pro se petitions the 5th Circuit had ignored.
—Anat Rubin, ProPublica, 4 Nov. 2023
This model takes a novel approach to legal coaching, applying classical business coaching principles to business matters, departing from the traditional focus on pro se dispute resolution.
—Jon Stojan, USA TODAY, 24 July 2023
My background predominantly was in economic development, also assisted inmates on Rikers Island, doing their pro se litigation motions.
—Joe Weisenthal, Bloomberg.com, 20 Apr. 2023
Experts at the clinic taught immigrants how to represent themselves in court without a lawyer — or in legal language, pro se.
—Dallas News, 20 Dec. 2022
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
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'prose.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to prose
Dictionary Entries Near prose
Cite this Entry
“Prose.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prose. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share