essayed meaning synonym

Related Words and Phrases

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Synonyms of essay

• as in article
• as in attempt
• as in to attempt
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Thesaurus Definition of essay

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Synonyms & Similar Words

• dissertation
• composition
• prolegomenon
• undertaking
• trial and error
• experimentation

Thesaurus Definition of essay  (Entry 2 of 2)

• have a go at
• try one's hand (at)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Synonym Chooser

How does the verb essay differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of essay are attempt , endeavor , strive , and try . While all these words mean "to make an effort to accomplish an end," essay implies difficulty but also suggests tentative trying or experimenting.

When might attempt be a better fit than essay ?

While the synonyms attempt and essay are close in meaning, attempt stresses the initiation or beginning of an effort.

Where would endeavor be a reasonable alternative to essay ?

Although the words endeavor and essay have much in common, endeavor heightens the implications of exertion and difficulty.

When is strive a more appropriate choice than essay ?

While in some cases nearly identical to essay , strive implies great exertion against great difficulty and specifically suggests persistent effort.

How do try and attempt relate to one another, in the sense of essay ?

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

Articles Related to essay

To 'Essay' or 'Assay'?

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

Thesaurus Entries Near essay

Cite this entry.

“Essay.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/essay. Accessed 17 May. 2024.

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

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es•say

• Anaya Rudolfo Alfonso
• Baldwin James Arthur
• Burroughs John
• Chesterton Gilbert Keith
• Cobbett William
• composition
• Crèvecoeur Michel Guillaume Jean de
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• disquisition
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• esprit de corps
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• Espy James Pollard
• essay question
• Essence of spruce
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• essential amino acid
• essential care
• essential cargo
• Essential character
• essential chemicals
• essential communications traffic
• essential condition
• Essential disease
• essential element
• essential elements of friendly information
• Essais Périodiques
• Essanay Film Manufacturing Company
• Essar Power Gujarat Ltd.
• Essar Shipping and Logistics Ltd.
• Essarts Club Archerie
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noun as in written discourse

Strongest matches

• dissertation

Strong matches

• composition
• disquisition
• explication

noun as in try, attempt

• undertaking

Weak matches

• one's all
• one's level best

verb as in try, attempt

• have a crack
• have a shot
• make a run at
• put to the test
• take a stab at
• take a whack at

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Example sentences.

As several of my colleagues commented, the result is good enough that it could pass for an essay written by a first-year undergraduate, and even get a pretty decent grade.

GPT-3 also raises concerns about the future of essay writing in the education system.

This little essay helps focus on self-knowledge in what you’re best at, and how you should prioritize your time.

As Steven Feldstein argues in the opening essay, technonationalism plays a part in the strengthening of other autocracies too.

He’s written a collection of essays on civil engineering life titled Bridginess, and to this day he and Lauren go on “bridge dates,” where they enjoy a meal and admire the view of a nearby span.

I think a certain kind of compelling essay has a piece of that.

The current attack on the Jews,” he wrote in a 1937 essay, “targets not just this people of 15 million but mankind as such.

The impulse to interpret seems to me what makes personal essay writing compelling.

To be honest, I think a lot of good essay writing comes out of that.

Someone recently sent me an old Joan Didion essay on self-respect that appeared in Vogue.

There is more of the uplifted forefinger and the reiterated point than I should have allowed myself in an essay.

Consequently he was able to turn in a clear essay upon the subject, which, upon examination, the king found to be free from error.

It is no part of the present essay to attempt to detail the particulars of a code of social legislation.

But angels and ministers of grace defend us from ministers of religion who essay art criticism!

It is fit that the imagination, which is free to go through all things, should essay such excursions.

Related Words

Words related to essay are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word essay . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

verb as in point or direct at a goal

• concentrate
• contemplate
• set one's sights on

noun as in piece of writing

• think piece

verb as in try, make effort

• do level best
• exert oneself
• give a fling
• give a whirl
• give best shot
• give it a go
• give it a try
• give old college try
• go the limit
• have a go at
• shoot the works
• take best shot
• try one's hand at

Viewing 5 / 74 related words

On this page you'll find 154 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to essay, such as: article, discussion, dissertation, manuscript, paper, and piece.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

Definition of 'essay'

essay in British English

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

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[ noun es -ey es -ey , e- sey verb e- sey ]

• a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.

a picture essay.

• an effort to perform or accomplish something; attempt.
• Philately. a design for a proposed stamp differing in any way from the design of the stamp as issued.
• Obsolete. a tentative effort; trial; assay.

verb (used with object)

• to try; attempt.
• to put to the test; make trial of.
• a short literary composition dealing with a subject analytically or speculatively
• an attempt or endeavour; effort
• a test or trial
• to attempt or endeavour; try
• to test or try out
• A short piece of writing on one subject, usually presenting the author's own views. Michel de Montaigne , Francis Bacon (see also Bacon ), and Ralph Waldo Emerson are celebrated for their essays.

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Other words from.

• es·sayer noun
• prees·say verb (used without object)
• unes·sayed adjective
• well-es·sayed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of essay 1

Example Sentences

As several of my colleagues commented, the result is good enough that it could pass for an essay written by a first-year undergraduate, and even get a pretty decent grade.

GPT-3 also raises concerns about the future of essay writing in the education system.

This little essay helps focus on self-knowledge in what you’re best at, and how you should prioritize your time.

As Steven Feldstein argues in the opening essay, technonationalism plays a part in the strengthening of other autocracies too.

He’s written a collection of essays on civil engineering life titled Bridginess, and to this day he and Lauren go on “bridge dates,” where they enjoy a meal and admire the view of a nearby span.

I think a certain kind of compelling essay has a piece of that.

The current attack on the Jews,” he wrote in a 1937 essay, “targets not just this people of 15 million but mankind as such.

The impulse to interpret seems to me what makes personal essay writing compelling.

To be honest, I think a lot of good essay writing comes out of that.

Someone recently sent me an old Joan Didion essay on self-respect that appeared in Vogue.

There is more of the uplifted forefinger and the reiterated point than I should have allowed myself in an essay.

Consequently he was able to turn in a clear essay upon the subject, which, upon examination, the king found to be free from error.

It is no part of the present essay to attempt to detail the particulars of a code of social legislation.

But angels and ministers of grace defend us from ministers of religion who essay art criticism!

It is fit that the imagination, which is free to go through all things, should essay such excursions.

Related Words

• dissertation

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Definition of essay noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• I have to write an essay this weekend.
• essay on something an essay on the causes of the First World War
• essay about somebody/something Have you done your essay about Napoleon yet?
• in an essay He made some very good points in his essay.
• Essays handed in late will not be accepted.
• Have you done your essay yet?
• He concludes the essay by calling for a corrective.
• I finished my essay about 10 o'clock last night!
• Lunch was the only time she could finish her essay assignment.
• We have to write an essay on the environment.
• You have to answer 3 out of 8 essay questions in the exam.
• the teenage winner of an essay contest
• We have to write an essay on the causes of the First World War.
• be entitled something
• be titled something
• address something
• in an/​the essay
• essay about

Join our community to access the latest language learning and assessment tips from Oxford University Press!

• essay (by somebody) a collection of essays by prominent African American writers
• essay on somebody/something The book contains a number of interesting essays on women in society.
• essay about somebody/something Pierce contributes a long essay about John F. Kennedy.
• in an essay I discuss this in a forthcoming essay.
• A version of this essay was presented at the Astronomical Society.
• In 2001 she published a collection of essays.
• The essays explore Einstein's personal development.
• the fifteen essays collected in this volume
• ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population’ by Thomas Malthus
• an essay entitled ‘Memory’
• This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the subject.
• His first essay in politics was a complete disaster.

Other results

Nearby words.

Michael Cohen's testimony against Donald Trump delivered for prosecution, if jury believes him

Cohen testified that trump knew he was paying to silence a porn actress to influence the 2016 election, but the former president and his allies contend the convicted liar can't be trusted..

• Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, said he discussed with Trump personally getting reimbursed $130,000 he paid porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about a sexual encounter.
• Cohen testified Trump knew the payoff would influence the 2016 election by preventing another salacious story before the polls closed.

Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen delivered testimony crucial to the prosecution's case that Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. According to Cohen , Trump knew about the $130,000 payment, directed it to benefit his 2016 campaign, and was deliberately reimbursing Cohen when he subsequently paid him $35,000 per month and recorded it as a legal expense.

"He approved it," Cohen told jurors, speaking about Trump.

But Trump and his allies have repeatedly argued Cohen is unreliable because he has been convicted and imprisoned for lying to Congress and to the Internal Revenue Service. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said Cohen submitted invoices that described “payment to the retainer agreement for legal services rendered," rather than a payment to Daniels .

"None of this was a crime," Blanche said.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide the campaign purpose of his reimbursements to Cohen.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Cohen provided details to support his testimony, and even a recording of him discussing a different hush money payment with Trump.

Jurors will have to decide whether they believe Trump’s or Cohen’s version of events − and who they believe will be key to how the verdict they reach.

Here are the key takeaways from Cohen's testimony:

'He approved it': Cohen on Trump approving payment to Stormy Daniels

Prosecutors are trying to prove Trump falsified business records to hide his reimbursements to Cohen because Daniels' claim of a sexual encounter could have hurt his chances in the 2016 election.

“Cohen was not being paid for legal services,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in his opening statement. “The defendant was paying him back for an illegal payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the election. The defendant falsified those business records because he wanted to conceal his and others' criminal conduct.”

Cohen testified that he created a shell company called Essential Consultants to pay $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep silent about her claim of a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 while he was married. Cohen described complex arrangements to avoid having Trump’s name on any documentation of the payment.

Cohen testified that he discussed with Trump and Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, about how to arrange his reimbursement for a total of $420,000, including the payment to Daniels, taxes and other fees. The discussion is a key element of the case because prosecutors need to show not only that the records were false but that Trump had an intent to defraud.

In Trump's presence, Weisselberg said during the meeting that $35,000 would be repaid monthly as a retainer for legal services, Cohen testified. A  legal retainer  is an agreement with a lawyer about compensation that reserves a lawyer or pays for future services.

Weisselberg is not expected to testify because he is jailed for perjury for lying during Trump’s New York civil fraud trial.

Cohen also provided a recording of Trump on Sept. 6, 2016 , discussing a $150,000 payment to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal , who also claimed a sexual relationship with Trump. The National Enquirer’s parent company paid McDougal to kill her story and sought reimbursement from the Trump Organization. Cohen described to Trump, who already knew the figure was $150,000, how the payment would be financed,

'A disaster for the campaign': Trump's description, according to Cohen

Cohen testified that Trump pursued the nondisclosure agreement to avoid negative publicity before the pending election.

"Women are gonna hate me," Cohen recalled Trump saying of a potential story about Daniels . "Guys may think it's cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign."

Cohen said Trump was concerned about the election rather than about his wife finding out about the accusation.

"He wasn't thinking about Melania," Cohen said. "This was all about the campaign."

The payment to Daniels came after the Washington Post released a recording in October 2016 of Trump talking about grabbing women by their genitals. Cohen said he was feeling pressure to silence Daniels to avoid her giving her story to the Daily Mail.

"Just do it," Cohen said Trump told him.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, testified that she sought the payment before the election because she was skeptical Trump would pay after he had either won or lost.

Trump instructed Cohen to try to delay paying Daniels until after the election because if he won, the story would have “no relevance” and “if I lose, I wouldn’t care,” Cohen testified.

Cohen critical of Trump and his lawyers

Under cross-examination, Cohen confirmed he has been harshly critical of Trump before and during the trial.

Cohen told Blanche he said Trump belongs in a "cage, like an animal."

Cohen also acknowledged that he has been making podcasts − six days a week − that often criticize Trump. Blanche asked Cohen to confirm he went on TikTok and  called Blanche a "crying little s---," which he did.

Asked if he said on TikTok he would like to see Trump convicted, Cohen said that sounded right.

"I would like to see accountability. It's not for me – it's for the jury and this court," Cohen added.

Trump contends payments were 'legal expenses to Cohen, not Daniels

Trump has argued his payments to Cohen were for a legal retainer and that he didn’t know Cohen was paying Daniels.

“I paid a lawyer a certain amount of money. We marked it down as a legal expense,” Trump told reporters Tuesday before entering the courtroom. “I didn’t mark it down as a construction of a wall, construction of a building. I didn’t mark it down as electricity cost. I took a legal expense – I didn’t do it, a bookkeeper did it, she did it exactly right – took a legal expense and called it a legal expense. This is the whole case.”

Cohen looking for 'revenge': House Speaker Johnson

Cohen served time in federal prison for lying to Congress, tax evasion and for a campaign-finance violation for his role in the hush money payment.

Trump and his allies repeatedly attacked Cohen as a convicted liar, disbarred for his crimes, although Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump not to comment on witnesses during the trial.

“This is a man who is clearly on a mission for personal revenge and who is widely known as a witness who has trouble with the truth,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday outside the courthouse. “He has a history of perjury and is well known for it. No one should believe a word he says today.”

Cohen acknowledged on Tuesday that he filed false invoices to claim the $35,000 payments from the Trump Organization.

Another Trump surrogate, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told reporters Tuesday that Cohen invoiced legal expenses and the Trump Organization paid them.

“Where is the crime? There is no crime,” Donalds said.

Early iterations of the AI applications we interact with most today were built on traditional machine learning models. These models rely on learning algorithms that are developed and maintained by data scientists. In other words, traditional machine learning models need human intervention to process new information and perform any new task that falls outside their initial training.

For example, Apple made Siri a feature of its iOS in 2011. This early version of Siri was trained to understand a set of highly specific statements and requests. Human intervention was required to expand Siri’s knowledge base and functionality.

However, AI capabilities have been evolving steadily since the breakthrough development of  artificial neural networks  in 2012, which allow machines to engage in reinforcement learning and simulate how the human brain processes information.

Unlike basic machine learning models, deep learning models allow AI applications to learn how to perform new tasks that need human intelligence, engage in new behaviors and make decisions without human intervention. As a result, deep learning has enabled task automation, content generation, predictive maintenance and other capabilities across  industries .

Due to deep learning and other advancements, the field of AI remains in a constant and fast-paced state of flux. Our collective understanding of realized AI and theoretical AI continues to shift, meaning AI categories and AI terminology may differ (and overlap) from one source to the next. However, the types of AI can be largely understood by examining two encompassing categories: AI capabilities and AI functionalities.

1. Artificial Narrow AI

Artificial Narrow Intelligence, also known as Weak AI (what we refer to as Narrow AI), is the only type of AI that exists today. Any other form of AI is theoretical. It can be trained to perform a single or narrow task, often far faster and better than a human mind can.

However, it can’t perform outside of its defined task. Instead, it targets a single subset of cognitive abilities and advances in that spectrum. Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and IBM Watson are examples of Narrow AI. Even OpenAI’s ChatGPT is considered a form of Narrow AI because it’s limited to the single task of text-based chat.

2. General AI

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), also known as  Strong AI , is today nothing more than a theoretical concept. AGI can use previous learnings and skills to accomplish new tasks in a different context without the need for human beings to train the underlying models. This ability allows AGI to learn and perform any intellectual task that a human being can.

3. Super AI

Super AI is commonly referred to as artificial superintelligence and, like AGI, is strictly theoretical. If ever realized, Super AI would think, reason, learn, make judgements and possess cognitive abilities that surpass those of human beings.

The applications possessing Super AI capabilities will have evolved beyond the point of understanding human sentiments and experiences to feel emotions, have needs and possess beliefs and desires of their own.

Underneath Narrow AI, one of the three types based on capabilities, there are two functional AI categories:

1. Reactive Machine AI

Reactive machines are AI systems with no memory and are designed to perform a very specific task. Since they can’t recollect previous outcomes or decisions, they only work with presently available data. Reactive AI stems from statistical math and can analyze vast amounts of data to produce a seemingly intelligent output.

Examples of Reactive Machine AI  

• IBM Deep Blue: IBM’s chess-playing supercomputer AI beat chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in the late 1990s by analyzing the pieces on the board and predicting the probable outcomes of each move.
• The Netflix Recommendation Engine: Netflix’s viewing recommendations are powered by models that process data sets collected from viewing history to provide customers with content they’re most likely to enjoy.

2. Limited Memory AI

Unlike Reactive Machine AI, this form of AI can recall past events and outcomes and monitor specific objects or situations over time. Limited Memory AI can use past- and present-moment data to decide on a course of action most likely to help achieve a desired outcome.

However, while Limited Memory AI can use past data for a specific amount of time, it can’t retain that data in a library of past experiences to use over a long-term period. As it’s trained on more data over time, Limited Memory AI can improve in performance.

Examples of Limited Memory AI  

• Generative AI: Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bard and DeepAI rely on limited memory AI capabilities to predict the next word, phrase or visual element within the content it’s generating.
• Virtual assistants and chatbots: Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, Cortana and IBM Watson Assistant combine natural language processing (NLP) and Limited Memory AI to understand questions and requests, take appropriate actions and compose responses.
• Self-driving cars: Autonomous vehicles use Limited Memory AI to understand the world around them in real-time and make informed decisions on when to apply speed, brake, make a turn, etc.

3. Theory of Mind AI

Theory of Mind AI is a functional class of AI that falls underneath the General AI. Though an unrealized form of AI today, AI with Theory of Mind functionality would understand the thoughts and emotions of other entities. This understanding can affect how the AI interacts with those around them. In theory, this would allow the AI to simulate human-like relationships.

Because Theory of Mind AI could infer human motives and reasoning, it would personalize its interactions with individuals based on their unique emotional needs and intentions. Theory of Mind AI would also be able to understand and contextualize artwork and essays, which today’s generative AI tools are unable to do.

Emotion AI is a theory of mind AI currently in development. AI researchers hope it will have the ability to analyze voices, images and other kinds of data to recognize, simulate, monitor and respond appropriately to humans on an emotional level. To date, Emotion AI is unable to understand and respond to human feelings.  

4. Self-Aware AI

Self-Aware AI is a kind of functional AI class for applications that would possess super AI capabilities. Like theory of mind AI, Self-Aware AI is strictly theoretical. If ever achieved, it would have the ability to understand its own internal conditions and traits along with human emotions and thoughts. It would also have its own set of emotions, needs and beliefs.

Emotion AI is a Theory of Mind AI currently in development. Researchers hope it will have the ability to analyze voices, images and other kinds of data to recognize, simulate, monitor and respond appropriately to humans on an emotional level. To date, Emotion AI is unable to understand and respond to human feelings.

Computer vision

Narrow AI applications with  computer vision  can be trained to interpret and analyze the visual world. This allows intelligent machines to identify and classify objects within images and video footage.

Applications of computer vision include:

• Image recognition and classification
• Object detection
• Object tracking
• Facial recognition
• Content-based image retrieval

Computer vision is critical for use cases that involve AI machines interacting and traversing the physical world around them. Examples include self-driving cars and machines navigating warehouses and other environments.

Robots in industrial settings can use Narrow AI to perform routine, repetitive tasks that involve materials handling, assembly and quality inspections. In healthcare, robots equipped with Narrow AI can assist surgeons in monitoring vitals and detecting potential issues during procedures.

Agricultural machines can engage in autonomous pruning, moving, thinning, seeding and spraying. And smart home devices such as the iRobot Roomba can navigate a home’s interior using computer vision and use data stored in memory to understand its progress.

Expert systems

Expert systems equipped with Narrow AI capabilities can be trained on a corpus to emulate the human decision-making process and apply expertise to solve complex problems. These systems can evaluate vast amounts of data to uncover trends and patterns to make decisions. They can also help businesses predict future events and understand why past events occurred.

IBM has pioneered AI from the very beginning, contributing breakthrough after breakthrough to the field. IBM most recently released a big upgrade to its cloud-based, generative AI platform known as watsonx.  IBM watsonx.ai  brings together new generative AI capabilities, powered by foundation models and traditional machine learning into a powerful studio spanning the entire AI lifecycle. With watsonx.ai, data scientists can build, train and deploy machine learning models in a single collaborative studio environment.

Get email updates about AI advancements, strategies, how-tos, expert perspectives and more.

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Opinion ‘Salacious’ and other words that don’t quite mean what people think

Certain words — “coruscating,” “pulchritude,” “bemused” — don’t mean what many people think they do.

Benjamin Dreyer, the former executive managing editor and copy chief at Random House, is the author of “ Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style .”

If there’s anything the world learned regarding the testimony of adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York, it’s that her story was salacious . Daniels was “the bringer of salacious detail” ( New York Times ), she provided “salacious testimony” ( The Post ) and listeners whispered “about a particularly salacious detail” ( NBC News ).

But was it indeed salacious? Our friends at Merriam-Webster say that the word means “arousing or appealing to sexual desire or imagination.” That doesn’t sound to me like what was going on in the courtroom. Was the testimony explicit? Sure. Lurid, most definitely. Depressingly squalid, you bet. But not, I’d say, salacious.

The disconnect was just another example of what I have long thought of as Redefinition by Misapprehended Inference. It’s the means by which numerous people repeatedly hear or see a word used in a perfectly standard context but then misunderstand, a little or a lot, what was in fact meant, and then carry that misapprehension forward, contributing to its widespread use.

That’s how repeated references, across many years, to “coruscating wit” have led to the increasingly common impression that “coruscating” means something like “direly and viciously critical” — in part because what is wit if it isn’t wielded to insult and put down? (sigh) — and also, certainly, because the word literally looks as if it means corrosive and scathing, with a side order of excoriating.

But what does “coruscating” actually mean ? Sparkling.

Just that. Simply: sparkling.

Or it’s the means by which the sight of the phrase “feminine pulchritude” has led to the notion — based, I presume, on the tastes of a reasonable portion of the American population — that “pulchritude” is a fancy way of saying buxomness, when all the word means is beauty .

Now, if you’re of the school that subscribes to the notion that all words mean what some people think they mean — a school in which I never enrolled — then I’ve probably already lost you. You’re welcome to use “bemused” to mean wryly amused , as if wearing a bow tie and sipping a martini , “nonplussed” to mean cool as a cucumber and “penultimate” to mean wow, like, ultimate to the max, dude , when what they truly (pardon me: traditionally) mean is, respectively, “confused and bewildered,” “unsure and perplexed” and “second to last.” (There’s also “antepenultimate,” referring not to your dad’s wonderful sister, but meaning “the one that comes before second to last.”)

As to “salacious,” then, I can only imagine that hearing countless novels and movies (have you seen Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” ?) referred to as salacious might lead one to guiltily assume that anything sexual, even if it’s grimly mercenary and barely consensual, can be described as salacious.

And yet: One of the upsides to there being far more words in the English language than any of us can make use of is that, if one truly delves, one can find the word that means precisely what one wants and needs it to mean, rather than nearly what one means — or not even vaguely what one means.

All you have to do is look (it up).

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• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of essay in English

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• 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
• dissertation
• essay question
• peer review
• go after someone
• go all out idiom
• go down swinging/fighting idiom
• go for it idiom
• go for someone
• shoot the works idiom
• smarten (someone/something) up
• smarten up your act idiom
• square the circle idiom
• step on the gas idiom

essay | Intermediate English

Examples of essay, collocations with essay.

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to try to persuade a customer who is already buying something to buy more, or to buy something more expensive

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It's more important to stop the fighting than whether to call wars genocide | Opinion

T oday, the word "genocide" is the one dreadful concept on the minds of many well-meaning people of conscience. Truly, talking about genocide has gotten many people into all kinds of trouble. Presidents of some of the most prestigious universities have given up their jobs over this word. More plebeian members have gotten arrested for the overt angst about it.

First, what is genocide? Many people who are troubled with the three big wars that are ongoing today are tempted to associate those killed in these conflicts as victims of genocide. However, genocide has a particular historical context and legal meaning. Obviously, as a mere word, genocide is a composite of "geno" and "cide" which roughly can be traced to the Greek and Latin words meaning the "killing of a people." Today, the Oxford English Dictionary defines genocide as "the  deliberate  killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of  destroying  that nation or group."

The word was introduced into modern usage in 1944 by the international lawyer Raphael Lemkim. This was a time when the Allies were confident of victory against the Axis powers, i.e. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and were thinking and talking about legal consequences for the leaders of these two countries responsible for starting the war and committing atrocities during the war. 

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Ironically, as it turned out in history, no war leaders from Germany and Japan, as a matter of application of international law, were brought to court, tried, and convicted of genocide. Even so, historians and other scholars routinely talk about the Holocaust as genocide. Wikipedia describes the Holocaust as the "genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population." However, the atrocities of the Nazis were not limited to Jews, but many people in both Western and Eastern Europe including Russia, were systematically murdered. A parallel genocide was carried by the Japanese armed forces against their neighbors in Asia. 

It was only in 1948, the year Israel was established as a modern nation state, that genocide became part of international law through the United Nations Genocide Convention. A small number of individuals have been convicted in the decades that followed. Fortunately, the world has never suffered another war of such magnitude, and the people convicted of genocide are from mostly smaller countries in Africa (Rwanda and Ethiopia), Asia (Cambodia), Balkan Europe (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Central America (Guatemala) and the Middle East (Iraq). Unlike Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tojo, their identities remain largely unknown to the world.

At this moment, three major wars are raging in the world − the civil war in Sudan (estimated two million killed), the Russian invasion of Ukraine (estimated 200,000 killed), and the Hamas-Israel war (estimated 35,000 killed). Only Israel has been accused by South Africa and Colombia in the International Court of Justice of the crime of genocide. The trouble with thinking and talking about genocide is that the accused must first be arrested and then be proven guilty of the "the  deliberate  killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of  destroying  that nation or group." It may be relatively easy to show that the pervasive killing of unarmed civilians with modern weapons of war is always deliberate, but it is an entirely different hurdle to prove "the aim of destroying that nation or group."

If Hitler were brought to trial today, the prosecutor should be able to show that Hitler and other Nazi leaders had planned and carried out a system of mass murder directed primarily at Jews that included death camps disguised as labor camps, gas chambers and ovens, all engineered to kill and dispose of millions of victims. However as noted, leaders of less technological advanced nations have actually been convicted of genocide − a total of two million people were killed in agrarian labor camps by the Cambodian Khmer Rouge armed with AK-47s and one million people in Rwanda died from gunfire and household machetes.

While the world has not witnessed another deliberate system of destroying a nation or group of people of the magnitude of the Holocaust, the three ongoing wars are troubling. The potential of more deaths from munitions, hunger and disease is ever-present. Perhaps, rather than attempting to pass the judgment of genocide, the world must make every human effort to first stop the fighting and provide for the immediate needs of the survivors and the reconstruction of their communities thereafter.

Charleston “C. K.” Wang is a resident of Silverton and a Cincinnati attorney .

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: It's more important to stop the fighting than whether to call wars genocide | Opinion