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Prosaic Has Literary Origins
In the past, any text that was not poetic was prosaic. Back then, prosaic carried no negative connotations; it simply indicated that a written work was made up of prose. That sense clearly owes much to the meaning of the word's Latin source prosa, meaning "prose." Poetry is viewed, however, as the more beautiful, imaginative, and emotional type of writing, and prose was relegated to the status of mundane and plain-Jane. As a result, English speakers started using prosaic to refer to anything considered matter-of-fact or ordinary, and they gradually transformed it into a synonym for "colorless," "drab," "lifeless," and "lackluster."
Examples of prosaic in a Sentence
Mordecai Richler, New York Times Book Review, 8 Oct. 1989
In addition to the prosaic essentials of life—wheat, rice, and salt—the Portuguese found exotic stores of pepper, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and other spices.
—Daniel J. Boorstin, The Discoverers, 1983
There is, of course, an ordinary medicine, an everyday medicine, humdrum, prosaic, a medicine for stubbed toes, quinsies, bunions, and boils …
—Oliver Sacks, Awakenings, 1973
… where did he get his money? He had to eat and drink, buy apparatus and chemicals, even pay the poor rate. Where did he get the common coin to meet such unavoidable if prosaic obligations?
—Flann O'Brien, The Dalkey Archive, 1964
He has a prosaic writing style.
the prosaic life of a hardworking farmer
She believes the noises are made by ghosts, but I think there's a more prosaic explanation.
Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 19 Dec. 2025
Not long ago, Tokarczuk sent us some remarks about a few of her favorite sci-fi and speculative-fiction writers, whose books mix the fantastical and the prosaic masterfully.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 6 Dec. 2025
Jay is feeling melancholy about the prosaic direction of his career, and the fact that his younger daughter went abroad with her school friends rather than hang out with him in Hollywood.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 14 Nov. 2025
The most prosaic explanation is that Villarroel’s transients are simply artifacts in the photographic plates such as speckles of dust, blobs in the emulsion or even radioactive particles.
—Jonathan O'Callaghan, Scientific American, 27 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for prosaic
Cite this Entry
“Prosaic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prosaic. Accessed 22 Dec. 2025.
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