Adjacent Words

Prosaic definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PROSA'IC, a. s as z. [L. prosaicus, from prosa,prose.]
Pertaining to prose; resembling prose; not restricted by numbers; applied to writings; as a prosaic composition.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not fanciful or imaginative; "local guides describe the history of various places in matter-of-fact tones"; "a prosaic and unimaginative essay" [syn: matter-of-fact, prosaic]
2: lacking wit or imagination; "a pedestrian movie plot" [syn: pedestrian, prosaic, prosy, earthbound]
3: not challenging; dull and lacking excitement; "an unglamorous job greasing engines" [syn: commonplace, humdrum, prosaic, unglamorous, unglamourous]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Late Latin prosaicus, from Latin prosa prose Date: circa 1656 1. a. characteristic of prose as distinguished from poetry ; factual b. dull, unimaginative <prosaic advice> 2. everyday, ordinary <heroic characters wasted in prosaic lives — Kirkus Reviews> • prosaically adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 like prose, lacking poetic beauty. 2 unromantic; dull; commonplace (took a prosaic view of life). Derivatives: prosaically adv. prosaicness n. Etymology: F prosa{iuml}que or LL prosaicus (as PROSE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Prosaic Pro*sa"ic, Prosaical Pro*sa"ic*al, a. [L. prosaius, from prosa prose: cf. F,. prosa["i]que. See Prose.] 1. Of or pertaining to prose; resembling prose; in the form of prose; unpoetical; writing or using prose; as, a prosaic composition. --Cudworth. 2. Dull; uninteresting; commonplace; unimaginative; prosy; as, a prosaic person. --Ed. Rev. -- Pro*sa"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Pro*sa"ic*al*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Something that is prosaic is dull and uninteresting. (FORMAL) His instructor offered a more prosaic explanation for the surge in interest... = mundane ADJ • prosaically Arabian jam is also known as angels' hair preserve, or more prosaically as carrot jam... ADV: ADV with cl, ADV with v

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a.; (also prosaical) 1. Prosy, unpoetical. 2. Dull, flat, stupid, uninteresting, unentertaining, tiresome, tedious, prolix, prosing, vapid, tame, humdrum, matter-of-fact, commonplace.

Moby Thesaurus

Attic, Spartan, actual, arid, ascetic, austere, bald, banal, banausic, bare, barren, bland, boring, breadwinning, businesslike, candid, characterless, chaste, classic, classical, cliched, commercial, common, commonplace, dead, direct, drab, dry, dull, earthbound, everyday, factual, flat, frank, garden, garden-variety, hackneyed, ho-hum, homely, homespun, household, humdrum, infecund, infertile, insipid, irksome, jejune, lackluster, lean, lifeless, literal, lowly, lusterless, materialistic, matter-of-fact, mediocre, moneymaking, monotonous, mouldy, mundane, natural, neat, nondescript, open, ordinary, overdone, pedestrian, plain, plain-speaking, plain-spoken, poetryless, practicable, practical, prose, prosing, prosy, pure, pure and simple, realistic, routine, run-of-the-mill, rustic, severe, simple, simple-speaking, sober, spare, staid, stale, stark, stereotyped, stock, stolid, straightforward, stuffy, tedious, threadbare, tired, tiresome, trite, unadorned, unaffected, undistinguished, unembellished, uneventful, unexceptional, unfanciful, unideal, unidealistic, unimaginative, unimpassioned, uninspired, uninteresting, uninventive, unnoteworthy, unoriginal, unpoetic, unpoetical, unromantic, unromanticized, unvarnished, utilitarian, vapid, workaday, workday, working