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 WebCarly Tagen-Dye, Peoplemag, 23 Nov. 2023
Something of a novel-in-verse, as well as some prose vignettes, Millner has crafted a superb coming-of-age story about a woman attempting to find love and a better idea of herself.
—Seth Combs, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Nov. 2023
Seidensticker pointed out Kawabata’s ties to Japanese poetry: This was prose of a sere, haiku-like delicacy and suggestiveness, with much implied and little specified.
—Brad Leithauser, WSJ, 10 Nov. 2023
Todd Parr tackles these scary things with his signature bright illustrations and simple prose.
—Marsha Takeda-Morrison, Parents, 24 Oct. 2023
While the marquee title, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, is fantastic on its own — a meticulous mashing of Anderson’s style and Dahl’s prose — together the shorts make up a much more disturbing and complicated cinematic exploration of the author’s work.
—Vulture, 29 Sep. 2023
Her increasing ambivalence about writing is detectable in Our Strangers—not because her prose is any less good, but because its fastidiousness now seems to culminate in ordinary everyday language.
—Jasmine Liu, The New Republic, 24 Oct. 2023
Except the prose isn’t so foreboding; Spears has always been funny and so unequivocally herself, even when recounting her mistreatment by most of the men in her life.
—Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
Mario Cuomo, who served as the governor of New York, once remarked that a politician campaigns in poetry but governs in prose.
—Richard Haass, Foreign Affairs, 15 Oct. 2023
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
Harding—whose first novel, Tinkers, was rejected many times before being accepted by the tiny Bellevue Literary Press, winning the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and selling more than half a million copies—is a prose stylist of uncommon beauty.
—Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 Jan. 2023
In the starched prose style of a naturalist, the wizard detailed nearly two decades of spirit conjurations and regular interactions with ancient evil entities such as Paimon and Belial.
—Kent Russell, Harper's Magazine, 11 May 2022
In two experiments, students first studied prose passages.
—Bridgid Finn, Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2010
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
Whether raising her four children, doting on her two grandchildren or chronicling in poems and prose her family's history from the time of the Civil War to today, Hill spent many years breathing life into chapter after chapter of family recollections and stories, her daughter Lesley Heil said.
—James Walsh, Star Tribune, 15 Feb. 2021
The author’s reliance on repetition of thoughts and remembrances gives the novel’s prose a propulsive quality, driving the largely plotless narrative forward.
—David Conrads, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Jan. 2023
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
Navarro was previously pro se and representing himself.
—Ali Dukakis, ABC News, 17 June 2022
The lawsuits were filed pro se, meaning that the plaintiffs represented themselves without the help of attorneys.
—cleveland, 8 June 2022
Using pro se, activists speak freely in ways that might get a real lawyer professionally reprimanded.
—Carole Sargent, The Conversation, 8 Dec. 2021
See More
Noun
Utilizing both prose and photos from her personal archive, Geller presents an intimate look into heritage, colonization and her family history.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, Peoplemag, 23 Nov. 2023
Something of a novel-in-verse, as well as some prose vignettes, Millner has crafted a superb coming-of-age story about a woman attempting to find love and a better idea of herself.
—Seth Combs, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Nov. 2023
Seidensticker pointed out Kawabata’s ties to Japanese poetry: This was prose of a sere, haiku-like delicacy and suggestiveness, with much implied and little specified.
—Brad Leithauser, WSJ, 10 Nov. 2023
Todd Parr tackles these scary things with his signature bright illustrations and simple prose.
—Marsha Takeda-Morrison, Parents, 24 Oct. 2023
While the marquee title, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, is fantastic on its own — a meticulous mashing of Anderson’s style and Dahl’s prose — together the shorts make up a much more disturbing and complicated cinematic exploration of the author’s work.
—Vulture, 29 Sep. 2023
Her increasing ambivalence about writing is detectable in Our Strangers—not because her prose is any less good, but because its fastidiousness now seems to culminate in ordinary everyday language.
—Jasmine Liu, The New Republic, 24 Oct. 2023
Except the prose isn’t so foreboding; Spears has always been funny and so unequivocally herself, even when recounting her mistreatment by most of the men in her life.
—Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
Mario Cuomo, who served as the governor of New York, once remarked that a politician campaigns in poetry but governs in prose.
—Richard Haass, Foreign Affairs, 15 Oct. 2023
Adjective
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
Harding—whose first novel, Tinkers, was rejected many times before being accepted by the tiny Bellevue Literary Press, winning the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and selling more than half a million copies—is a prose stylist of uncommon beauty.
—Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 Jan. 2023
In the starched prose style of a naturalist, the wizard detailed nearly two decades of spirit conjurations and regular interactions with ancient evil entities such as Paimon and Belial.
—Kent Russell, Harper's Magazine, 11 May 2022
In two experiments, students first studied prose passages.
—Bridgid Finn, Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2010
Verb
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
Whether raising her four children, doting on her two grandchildren or chronicling in poems and prose her family's history from the time of the Civil War to today, Hill spent many years breathing life into chapter after chapter of family recollections and stories, her daughter Lesley Heil said.
—James Walsh, Star Tribune, 15 Feb. 2021
The author’s reliance on repetition of thoughts and remembrances gives the novel’s prose a propulsive quality, driving the largely plotless narrative forward.
—David Conrads, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Jan. 2023
Adjective or adverb
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
Navarro was previously pro se and representing himself.
—Ali Dukakis, ABC News, 17 June 2022
The lawsuits were filed pro se, meaning that the plaintiffs represented themselves without the help of attorneys.
—cleveland, 8 June 2022
Using pro se, activists speak freely in ways that might get a real lawyer professionally reprimanded.
—Carole Sargent, The Conversation, 8 Dec. 2021
See More
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.
Word History
Etymology
Noun, Adjective, and Verb
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin prosa, from feminine of prorsus, prosus, straightforward, being in prose, contraction of proversus, past participle of provertere to turn forward, from pro- forward + vertere to turn — more at pro-, worth
Adjective or adverb
Latin
First Known Use
Noun
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Adjective
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Verb
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Adjective Or Adverb
1861, in the meaning defined above
Time Traveler
The first known use of prose was
in the 14th century
Phrases Containing prose
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 9 Dec. 2023.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
prose
nounˈprōz
1
: the ordinary language that people use when they speak or write
2
: writing that does not have the repeating rhythm used in poetry
prose
adjective
Legal Definition
pro se
adverb or adjectiveˈprō-ˈsā, -ˈsē
: on one's own behalf : without an attorney
a defendant's right to proceed pro se
a pro se action
Etymology
Adverb or adjective
Latin
More from Merriam-Webster on prose
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for prose
Nglish: Translation of prose for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of prose for Arabic Speakers
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