as in essays
a long piece of writing about a particular subject that is done to earn an advanced degree at a university
He wrote his dissertation on an obscure 16th-century poet.
Related Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of dissertations
The plush red seats of the Concertgebouw's main auditorium are occupied by students cramming for upcoming exams and finishing dissertations as classical music fills the hall.
—
ABC News, 26 Mar. 2026
Then there’s the rapid advance of image models, and models that can write poetry, and fiction, and dissertations, and ads, and policy papers.
—John Werner, Forbes.com, 5 Jan. 2026
People would devote entire dissertations to developing techniques for distinguishing handwritten digits or for recognizing faces in images; then a deep-learning algorithm would digest the underlying data, discover the subtleties of the problem, and make those projects seem obsolete.
—James Somers, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
ABC News, 26 Mar. 2026
Then there’s the rapid advance of image models, and models that can write poetry, and fiction, and dissertations, and ads, and policy papers.
—John Werner, Forbes.com, 5 Jan. 2026
People would devote entire dissertations to developing techniques for distinguishing handwritten digits or for recognizing faces in images; then a deep-learning algorithm would digest the underlying data, discover the subtleties of the problem, and make those projects seem obsolete.
—James Somers, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dissertations
Noun
-
As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is running a series of guest essays this week about mental health in schools.—
Tiffany Gibson,
AJC.com,
15 May 2026
-
In the end, Turn (W)here became largely a book of experimental and lyric essays, some framed as archival documents, passport stamps, and definitions.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
15 May 2026
Noun
-
Church’s landscapes from those traumatic years functioned as commentaries on the conflict’s course.—
Sebastian Smee,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
-
Pau’s videos, operating both as personal diaries and layered social commentaries, reflect a territorial condition mired in uncertainty.—
Pauline J. Yao,
Artforum,
2 May 2026
Noun
-
Skyhorse has since published a dozen or so books by Kennedy, including a memoir and several more anti-vaccine treatises.—
Tom Bartlett,
The Atlantic,
5 Apr. 2026
-
The text consists of 10 treatises on architecture, engineering and urban planning, and is the oldest surviving work written on the subject.—
Andrea Margolis,
FOXNews.com,
28 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.—
Andrew Blankstein,
NBC news,
12 May 2026
-
Patel has criticized the articles and sued The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick for $250 million but has not specifically denied at least some of the allegations in the two articles.—
Josh Meyer,
USA Today,
12 May 2026
Noun
-
Read more about that here and check out theses photos of the behemoth that carries rockets around the space center.—
Roger Simmons,
The Orlando Sentinel,
18 Mar. 2026
-
The discipline has built a vast array of empirical theses deep inside this single ideology—liberalism—and, in doing so, has naturalized it.—
Jason Blakely,
Harpers Magazine,
30 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dissertations.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissertations. Accessed 20 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
