essay
[noun]
Synonyms:
- composition, article, discourse, dissertation, paper, piece, tract, treatise
[verb]
Synonyms:
- attempt, aim, endeavour, try, undertake

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Related Idioms: give it a try (or fling or go), have at it, make a stab at, take a crack (or whack) at
Related Words: venture, labor, toil, travail, work, exertion, go, discourse, discussion, explication, exposition, study, piece, tract, treatise, dissertation, thesis

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English Thesaurus: essay, paper, dissertation, thesi

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

I. es‧say¹ S3 /ˈeseɪ/ noun [countable]
[Date: 1400-1500; Language: Old French; Origin: essai, from Late Latin exagium 'act of weighing']

1. a short piece of writing about a particular subject by a student as part of a course of study
essay on/about
an essay on Bernard Shaw

2. a short piece of writing giving someone’s ideas about politics, society etc
essay on
Rousseau’s ‘Essay on the Origin of Languages’

3. formal an attempt to do something

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

II. es‧say² /eˈseɪ/ verb [transitive]
formal to attempt to do something

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

essay
noun
QUANT. collection In 2001 she published a collection of essays.
VERB + ESSAY do, write Have you done your essay yet?
give in, hand in Essays handed in late will not be accepted.
ESSAY + NOUN question, title, topic You have to answer 3 out of 8 essay questions in the exam.
PREP. in an/the ~ He made some very good points in his essay.
~ about/on We've got to write an essay on the environment.
~ by an essay by Montaigne

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

essay

write/do an essay
I’ve got a 3,000 word essay to write before Friday.
give in/hand in an essay
Half the class failed to hand in their essay on time.
mark an essay British English, grade an essay AmE:
I went home knowing that I still had a pile of essays to mark.
read an essay
Did you read her essay on ‘The Waste Land’?
an English/history/politics etc essay
He got a good grade for his English essay.
a critical essay (=one that judges how good a book, writer etc is)
The anthology contains critical essays by Kael, Graham Greene and others.
an academic essay
Mature students often need practice writing academic essays.
a literary essay
In a literary essay, you should explore the meaning and construction of the text.
an essay question
We practised essay questions from previous exam papers.
an essay title
You will find a list of essay titles on the notice board.
an essay topic
Students will be given six essay topics, from which they must choose two.
a collection of essays
She published a collection of essays on philosophy.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

essay a piece of writing written by a student as part of a course of study:
We had to write an essay about the environment.
Have you handed in your essay yet?
paper an essay written by a someone who has studied a subject as part of their research. Paper is also used about an essay that you have to write for a class at school, especially in American English:
The professor has published over forty scientific papers on diseases of tropical crops
At the beginning of the school year we had to write a paper about our interests.
dissertation a long essay written as part of a university degree:
In the third year of their course, students have to write a 10,000 word dissertation on a topic that has been approved by their tutor.
thesis a very long essay that is part of an advanced university degree such as a master’s degree or a doctorate:
He wrote his doctoral thesis on the literature of the English romantic movement.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲