plural name of essay

bottom_desktop desktop:[300x250]

• 1.1.1 Pronunciation
• 1.1.2.1 Derived terms
• 1.1.2.2 Related terms
• 1.1.2.3 Translations
• 1.2.1 Pronunciation
• 1.2.2.1 Translations
• 1.3 Anagrams
• 2.1 Etymology
• 2.2 Pronunciation
• 2.3.1 Hypernyms
• 2.3.2 Derived terms
• 2.3.3 Descendants
• 3.1 Etymology
• 3.2.1 Derived terms
• 3.3 References
• 4.1 Etymology
• 4.2.1 Derived terms
• 4.3 References

Etymology 1

Since late 16th century, borrowed from Middle French essay , essai ( “ essay ” ) , meaning coined by Montaigne in the same time, from the same words in earlier meanings 'experiment; assay; attempt', from Old French essay , essai , assay , assai , from Latin exagium ( “ weight; weighing, testing on the balance ” ) , from exigere + -ium .

Pronunciation

• ( Received Pronunciation , General American ) IPA ( key ) : /ˈɛs.eɪ/ (1), IPA ( key ) : /ɛˈseɪ/ (2-4)
• Rhymes: -ɛseɪ
• Homophone : ese

essay ( plural essays )

• 2013 January, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist ‎ [1] , volume 101 , number 1, archived from the original on 9 February 2017 , page 64 : In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature , David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.”
• ( obsolete ) A test , experiment ; an assay .
• 1861 , E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley , page 16 : My first essay at getting employment was fruitless; but after no small number of mortifying rebuffs from various parties to whom I applied for assistance, I was at last rewarded by a comparative success.
• 1988 , James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom , Oxford, published 2003 , page 455 : This was Lee's first essay in the kind of offensive-defensive strategy that was to become his hallmark.
• ( philately , finance ) A proposed design for a postage stamp or a banknote .

Derived terms

• argumentative essay
• automated essay scoring
• eight-legged essay
• essay question
• in this essay I will
• photo-essay
• photo essay
• video essay

Related terms

Translations, etymology 2.

From Middle French essayer , essaier , from Old French essaiier , essayer , essaier , assaiier , assayer , assaier , from essay , essai , assay , assai ( “ attempt; assay; experiment ” ) as above.

• ( UK , US ) IPA ( key ) : /ɛˈseɪ/

essay ( third-person singular simple present essays , present participle essaying , simple past and past participle essayed )

• 1900 , Charles W. Chesnutt , chapter II, in The House Behind the Cedars : He retraced his steps to the front gate, which he essayed to open.
• 1950 April, R. A. H. Weight, “They Passed by My Window”, in Railway Magazine , page 260 : The train took the slow to branch spur at the north end at a not much slower speed, then essayed the short sharply curved climb with a terrific roar, smoke rising straight from the chimney to a height of some 60 ft., the long train twisting and curling behind.
• 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation ‎ [2] , archived from the original on 22 May 2024 : There was the counter, there was the bulletin board, above her the dull sound of music being played over headphones. Something jaunty. She liked the beat. Then the sound of a chair being pushed back, and someone humming as they walked away from her, and she darted up to plunge the bayonet into their kidneys from behind. A followup stroke through the back of the neck, and the second soldier was down. She didn't even stop to see if it was a man or a woman, young or old. There were further hurdles to essay before she reached her destination.
• ( intransitive ) To move forth, as into battle.
• Sayes , Seays , Sesay , eyass

Borrowed from English essay ( “ essay ” ) , from Middle French essai ( “ essay; attempt, assay ” ) , from Old French essai , from Latin exagium (whence the neuter gender).

• IPA ( key ) : /ɛˈseː/ , /ˈɛ.seː/
• Hyphenation: es‧say
• Rhymes: -eː

essay   n ( plural essays , diminutive essaytje   n )

Descendants

Norwegian bokmål.

Borrowed from English essay , from Middle French essai .

essay   n ( definite singular essayet , indefinite plural essay or essayer , definite plural essaya or essayene )

• an essay , a written composition of moderate length exploring a particular subject
• essaysamling
• “essay” in The Bokmål Dictionary .

Norwegian Nynorsk

essay   n ( definite singular essayet , indefinite plural essay , definite plural essaya )

• “essay” in The Nynorsk Dictionary .

• English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
• English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂eǵ-
• English terms borrowed from Middle French
• English terms derived from Middle French
• English terms derived from Old French
• English terms derived from Latin
• English 2-syllable words
• English terms with IPA pronunciation
• English terms with audio pronunciation
• Rhymes:English/ɛseɪ
• Rhymes:English/ɛseɪ/2 syllables
• English terms with homophones
• English lemmas
• English nouns
• English countable nouns
• English terms with quotations
• English terms with obsolete senses
• English terms with rare senses
• en:Philately
• English verbs
• English dated terms
• English transitive verbs
• English intransitive verbs
• English heteronyms
• en:Literature
• Dutch terms borrowed from English
• Dutch terms derived from English
• Dutch terms derived from Middle French
• Dutch terms derived from Old French
• Dutch terms derived from Latin
• Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
• Rhymes:Dutch/eː
• Dutch lemmas
• Dutch nouns
• Dutch nouns with plural in -s
• Dutch neuter nouns
• Norwegian Bokmål terms borrowed from English
• Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from English
• Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Middle French
• Norwegian Bokmål lemmas
• Norwegian Bokmål nouns
• Norwegian Bokmål neuter nouns
• Norwegian Nynorsk terms borrowed from English
• Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from English
• Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from Middle French
• Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas
• Norwegian Nynorsk nouns
• Norwegian Nynorsk neuter nouns
• Pages with entries
• Pages with 4 entries
• Quotation templates to be cleaned
• Entries with translation boxes
• Terms with Albanian translations
• Terms with Arabic translations
• Terms with Armenian translations
• Terms with Assamese translations
• Terms with Azerbaijani translations
• Terms with Bashkir translations
• Terms with Belarusian translations
• Terms with Bengali translations
• Terms with Bulgarian translations
• Terms with Burmese translations
• Terms with Catalan translations
• Cantonese terms with redundant transliterations
• Terms with Cantonese translations
• Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations
• Terms with Mandarin translations
• Terms with Czech translations
• Terms with Danish translations
• Terms with Dutch translations
• Terms with Esperanto translations
• Terms with Estonian translations
• Terms with Finnish translations
• Terms with French translations
• Terms with Galician translations
• Terms with Georgian translations
• Terms with German translations
• Terms with Greek translations
• Terms with Ancient Greek translations
• Terms with Hebrew translations
• Terms with Hindi translations
• Terms with Hungarian translations
• Terms with Icelandic translations
• Terms with Ido translations
• Terms with Indonesian translations
• Terms with Irish translations
• Terms with Italian translations
• Terms with Japanese translations
• Terms with Kazakh translations
• Terms with Khmer translations
• Terms with Korean translations
• Terms with Kyrgyz translations
• Terms with Latin translations
• Terms with Latvian translations
• Terms with Lithuanian translations
• Terms with Macedonian translations
• Terms with Malagasy translations
• Terms with Malay translations
• Terms with Malayalam translations
• Terms with Maori translations
• Terms with Marathi translations
• Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations
• Terms with Pashto translations
• Terms with Persian translations
• Terms with Polish translations
• Terms with Portuguese translations
• Terms with Romanian translations
• Terms with Russian translations
• Russian terms with non-redundant manual transliterations
• Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations
• Terms with Slovak translations
• Terms with Slovene translations
• Terms with Spanish translations
• Terms with Swahili translations
• Terms with Swedish translations
• Terms with Tagalog translations
• Terms with Tajik translations
• Terms with Tatar translations
• Terms with Telugu translations
• Terms with Thai translations
• Terms with Turkish translations
• Terms with Ukrainian translations
• Urdu terms with non-redundant manual transliterations
• Terms with Urdu translations
• Urdu terms with redundant transliterations
• Terms with Uyghur translations
• Terms with Uzbek translations
• Terms with Vietnamese translations
• Terms with Welsh translations
• Terms with Yiddish translations
• Terms with Yoruba translations

Navigation menu

Definition of 'essay'

It seems that your browser is blocking this video content.

To access it, add this site to the exceptions or modify your security settings, then refresh this page.

essay in British English

Essay in american english, examples of 'essay' in a sentence essay, cobuild collocations essay, trends of essay.

View usage for: All Years Last 10 years Last 50 years Last 100 years Last 300 years

Browse alphabetically essay

• essay competition
• essay contest
• essay discusses
• All ENGLISH words that begin with 'E'

Related terms of essay

• essay topic
• photo essay
• short essay
• View more related words

Wordle Helper

Scrabble Tools

Quick word challenge

Quiz Review

Score: 0 / 5

• Access the entire site, including the Easy Learning Grammar , and our language quizzes.
• Customize your language settings. (Unregistered users can only access the International English interface for some pages.)
• Submit new words and phrases to the dictionary.
• Benefit from an increased character limit in our Translator tool.
• Receive our weekly newsletter with the latest news, exclusive content, and offers.
• Be the first to enjoy new tools and features.
• It is easy and completely free !

• More from M-W
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Definition of essay

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Definition of essay  (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

• composition

attempt , try , endeavor , essay , strive mean to make an effort to accomplish an end.

attempt stresses the initiation or beginning of an effort.

try is often close to attempt but may stress effort or experiment made in the hope of testing or proving something.

endeavor heightens the implications of exertion and difficulty.

essay implies difficulty but also suggests tentative trying or experimenting.

strive implies great exertion against great difficulty and specifically suggests persistent effort.

Examples of essay in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'essay.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Middle French essai , ultimately from Late Latin exagium act of weighing, from Latin ex- + agere to drive — more at agent

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 4

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Phrases Containing essay

• essay question
• photo - essay

Articles Related to essay

To 'Essay' or 'Assay'?

You'll know the difference if you give it the old college essay

Dictionary Entries Near essay

Cite this entry.

“Essay.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/essay. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of essay.

Kids Definition of essay  (Entry 2 of 2)

More from Merriam-Webster on essay

Nglish: Translation of essay for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of essay for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about essay

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

How to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), plural and possessive names: a guide, the difference between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.', why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word, what's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism', popular in wordplay, weird words for autumn time, 8 words for lesser-known musical instruments, 10 words from taylor swift songs (merriam's version), 9 superb owl words, 15 words that used to mean something different, games & quizzes.

• Preparation
• General FAQ
• Exam Result

Eseys or Essays – Which is Correct?

• by Sarah Thompson
• March 3, 2024

Let’s have a conversation about the common mistake people make when writing the word “Essays.” Many individuals seem to get confused between “Eseys” and “Essays” and find themselves wondering which spelling is correct. Today, we will debunk this confusion and establish the correct spelling once and for all.

To address this issue, it is pertinent to emphasize that “Essays” is the correct spelling of the word. The incorrect term “Eseys” is a common misspelling resulting from a typographical error or a lack of familiarity with the correct spelling.

Now, let’s learn the reasons why “Essays” is the right spelling. Firstly, “Essays” is the plural form of the singular noun “Essay.” When we want to refer to more than one essay, we simply add an “s” to the end of the word. This is the conventional English rule for forming plurals of nouns, and it applies to “Essay” as well. For example, “I have written multiple essays on various topics.” Here, the correct plural form of “Essay” is used to convey the idea that the speaker has written more than one essay.

Moreover, we can also look at past forms of verbs to further solidify the correct spelling. For instance, the verb form of “Essay” is “Essayed.” “Essayed” is the past tense form, and by examining the conjugation of the verb, we can recognize that “Essays” is indeed the accurate plural form. You might say, “He essayed his thoughts on the subject,” to convey that someone expressed their ideas in the form of an essay.

To illustrate the incorrect spelling, “Eseys,” it is crucial to emphasize that this word does not exist in Standard English. It is a mistake that has often emerged due to a lack of knowledge or inattentiveness during writing. Therefore, it is essential to be attentive and avoid this misspelling in formal writing, as it may weaken your language skills and leave a negative impression on the reader.

In conclusion, we have effectively established that the correct spelling of the word referring to multiple essays is “Essays.” “Eseys” is an erroneous form that should be avoided. Remember, using proper grammar and spelling not only enhances your communication skills, but it also showcases your proficiency in the English language. So, the next time you find yourself unsure about whether to write “Eseys” or “Essays,” confidently choose the latter for an accurate and grammatically correct sentence!

So, keep practicing your writing skills, pay attention to proper grammar, and remember the correct spelling of “Essays.” With dedication and practice, you will become an exceptional writer and expert in the English language.

Related Posts

Fruition or fruittion – which is correct.

Are you wondering whether to spell it as “fruition” or “fruittion”? Well, let me clear up the confusion for you. The correct spelling is “fruition.”… 

During or Durring – Which is Correct?

During or Durring – Which is Correct? When it comes to the correct spelling of the word, the answer is quite simple – during. Yes,… 

Corrisponding or Corresponding – Which is Correct?

When it comes to the word “corrisponding” or “corresponding,” the correct spelling is “corresponding.” The word “corrisponding” does not exist in the English language. I… 

Surprise or Suprize – Which is Correct?

Surprise or suprize? That’s the ultimate question. If you’ve ever encountered these two spellings, you might have wondered which is the correct one. The answer,… 

Delicius or Delicious – Which is Correct?

Ah, the age-old question of spelling! It’s a common dilemma that many English learners encounter: should it be “delicius” or “delicious”? Well, let’s dive right… 

Solely or Souly – Which is Correct?

The question of whether “solely” or “souly” is the correct term may seem straightforward to some, but it’s actually a common confusion that arises due… 

• Dictionaries home
• American English
• Collocations
• German-English
• Grammar home
• Practical English Usage
• Learn & Practise Grammar (Beta)
• Word Lists home
• My Word Lists
• Recent additions
• Resources home
• Text Checker

Definition of essay noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

Take your English to the next level

The Oxford Learner’s Thesaurus explains the difference between groups of similar words. Try it for free as part of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app

• Regular verbs
• Third-person singular forms
• Unexpected parameter in audio template

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of essay in English

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

• I want to finish off this essay before I go to bed .
• His essay was full of spelling errors .
• Have you given that essay in yet ?
• Have you handed in your history essay yet ?
• I'd like to discuss the first point in your essay.
• boilerplate
• composition
• corresponding author
• dissertation
• essay question
• peer review
• go after someone phrasal verb
• go all out idiom
• go down swinging/fighting idiom
• go for it idiom
• go for someone phrasal verb
• shoot for the moon idiom
• shoot the works idiom
• smarten (someone/something) up phrasal verb
• smarten up your act idiom
• square the circle idiom

essay | American Dictionary

Examples of essay, collocations with essay.

These are words often used in combination with essay .

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

Translations of essay

Get a quick, free translation!

Word of the Day

moving images created from drawings, models, etc. that are photographed or created by a computer

Cooking or hitting the books? (Idioms with ‘book’)

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• English–Swedish Swedish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists
• English    Noun Verb
• American    Noun
• Collocations
• Translations
• All translations

To add essay to a word list please sign up or log in.

Add essay to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{message}}

Something went wrong.

There was a problem sending your report.