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.
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Recent Examples of dissertations
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
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
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Real Man Adventures isn’t broken up into chapter-length sections of narrative, but rather brief, discursive essays.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
12 Mar. 2026
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In that case, justices said colleges may still consider how race has shaped students’ lives if applicants share that information in their admissions essays.—
Jaweed Kaleem,
Los Angeles Times,
12 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Later commentaries describe the relics that came out of the Buddha’s ashes as glittering jewels — some as small as mustard seeds and others resembling gems or golden nuggets.—
Deepa Bharath,
Los Angeles Times,
1 Mar. 2026
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Northeastern University School of Law’s Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) has argued through litigation and commentaries that sports betting is a public health concern due to its addictive qualities, aggressive marketing by companies, and the ease of placing a bet through an app.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
24 Feb. 2026
Noun
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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
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The collection, now over 40,000 volumes, includes Greek and Arabic manuscripts, early cartographic works and rare scientific treatises gathered from across the Iberian world.—
Navya Verma,
Condé Nast Traveler,
2 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.—
Austin Mullen,
NBC news,
10 Mar. 2026
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News articles from the time say several hundred Marines were involved with the filming and that the base benefitted from the realistic combat production.—
Abby Hamblin,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 Mar. 2026
Noun
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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
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Kirk has two main theses in his book, and expresses each in a very different tone.—
Judith Shulevitz,
The Atlantic,
22 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dissertations.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissertations. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.
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