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say it: eh-SAY
essay is a noun and verb meaning "an analytic or interpretive literary composition". It is pronounced /ɛˈseɪ/ — eh-SAY. It carries 4 recorded senses.
make an effort or attempt
“He tried to shake off his fears”
“The infant had essayed a few wobbly steps”
“The police attempted to stop the thief”
“He sought to improve himself”
“She always seeks to do good in the world”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for essay come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.