Dictionary essays

UK uk ​ /ˈes.eɪ/ us ​ /ˈes.eɪ/ (US paper) B1 a short piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one done by students as part of the work for a course: › to try to do something: › literature a short piece of writing on a particular subject, often expressing personal views

a short piece of writing on a particular subject, often expressing personal views In a school test, an essay is a written answer that includes information and discussion, usually to test how well the student understands the subject. (Definition of essay from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

• A collection of essays on the political, economic, and cultural aspects of democratization. • Their friendship had been sealed in second grade when the entire class was asked to write essays on their fathers. • There was no money to be made writing essays on Spinoza, but a successful novel could make one rich.

If you want to make it look like you actually put effort into your essay, you want to avoid the appearance that you dug up the closes dictionary and copied down the definition. Instead, always aim to find definitions from academic sources – preferably textbooks. Textbooks provide good, clear, and specific definitions for your area of inquiry.