essay plural english

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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Eseys or Essays – Which is Correct?

• by Sarah Thompson
• March 3, 2024

Let’s have a conversation about the common mistake people make when writing the word “Essays.” Many individuals seem to get confused between “Eseys” and “Essays” and find themselves wondering which spelling is correct. Today, we will debunk this confusion and establish the correct spelling once and for all.

To address this issue, it is pertinent to emphasize that “Essays” is the correct spelling of the word. The incorrect term “Eseys” is a common misspelling resulting from a typographical error or a lack of familiarity with the correct spelling.

Now, let’s learn the reasons why “Essays” is the right spelling. Firstly, “Essays” is the plural form of the singular noun “Essay.” When we want to refer to more than one essay, we simply add an “s” to the end of the word. This is the conventional English rule for forming plurals of nouns, and it applies to “Essay” as well. For example, “I have written multiple essays on various topics.” Here, the correct plural form of “Essay” is used to convey the idea that the speaker has written more than one essay.

Moreover, we can also look at past forms of verbs to further solidify the correct spelling. For instance, the verb form of “Essay” is “Essayed.” “Essayed” is the past tense form, and by examining the conjugation of the verb, we can recognize that “Essays” is indeed the accurate plural form. You might say, “He essayed his thoughts on the subject,” to convey that someone expressed their ideas in the form of an essay.

To illustrate the incorrect spelling, “Eseys,” it is crucial to emphasize that this word does not exist in Standard English. It is a mistake that has often emerged due to a lack of knowledge or inattentiveness during writing. Therefore, it is essential to be attentive and avoid this misspelling in formal writing, as it may weaken your language skills and leave a negative impression on the reader.

In conclusion, we have effectively established that the correct spelling of the word referring to multiple essays is “Essays.” “Eseys” is an erroneous form that should be avoided. Remember, using proper grammar and spelling not only enhances your communication skills, but it also showcases your proficiency in the English language. So, the next time you find yourself unsure about whether to write “Eseys” or “Essays,” confidently choose the latter for an accurate and grammatically correct sentence!

So, keep practicing your writing skills, pay attention to proper grammar, and remember the correct spelling of “Essays.” With dedication and practice, you will become an exceptional writer and expert in the English language.

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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.

These are words often used in combination with essay .

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Translations of essay

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Word of the Day

hit the road

to leave a place or begin a journey

Searching out and tracking down: talking about finding or discovering things

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Definition of essay noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

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essay in English dictionary

Meanings and definitions of "essay".

• A written composition of moderate length exploring a particular issue or subject.
• (obsolete) A test, experiment; an assay.
• (now rare) An attempt.
• (dated, transitive) To try.
• (intransitive) To move forth, as into battle.
• noun A written composition of moderate length exploring a particular issue or subject.
• noun (obsolete) A test, experiment; an assay.
• noun (now rare) An attempt.
• verb (dated, transitive) To try.
• verb (intransitive) To move forth, as into battle.
• Short disquisition about a theme.
• written composition
• noun an analytic or interpretive literary composition
• noun a tentative attempt
• verb 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"
• verb put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to; "This approach has been tried with good results"; "Test this recipe"

Synonyms of "essay" in English dictionary

evaluate, attempt, test are the top synonyms of "essay" in English thesaurus.

• evaluate · attempt · test · prove · assay · writing · examine · endeavour · seek · pass judgment · written material · piece of writing · effort · try out · endeavor · judge · try · move · act

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"

put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to; "This approach has been tried with good results"; "Test this recipe"

Grammar and declension of essay

• essay ( third-person singular simple present essays , present participle essaying , simple past and past participle essayed )
• essay ( plural   essays )
• essay ( plural essays )

Sample sentences with " essay "

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Plural Nouns in English: Simple Guide with Examples

English plural nouns can seem challenging for learners. But this guide makes it easier to turn any singular (one) noun into a plural (more than one) noun.

Discover the eight rules for making nouns plural in English below. I’ve also included common examples of nouns for each rule and the different kinds of irregular plural nouns.

How Do Plurals Work in English?

Regular plural nouns, add -s to most regular nouns.

• Add -es to nouns ending in -o, -s, -x, -z, -sh or -ch
• Add -s to nouns that end with vowel + y

Change the ending to -es for nouns ending in -is

Change the ending to -ves for nouns ending in -f or -fe, change the ending to -ies for nouns ending in consonant + y, change the ending to -i for nouns ending in -us.

• Change the ending to -a for certain nouns ending in -on

Irregular Plural Nouns

Common irregular nouns to memorize, nouns with the same plural and singular forms, nouns that don’t change, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The difference between the singular and plural forms of a noun is reflected in spelling. The most basic way to make an English noun plural is by adding -s , but as you’ll see below,  there are a number of spelling rules to follow to make a noun plural and also many exceptions.

The majority of English nouns are regular, which means they all follow the same format for their plural forms. Here are the rules for dealing with regular nouns:

For most regular English nouns, you simply add the letter -s to the noun.

It’s easy, but remember that another form looks very similar, and that’s the possessive form: “a dog’s bowl,” which means the bowl belongs to the dog. So watch out for that. 

Here are a few common examples:

Add -es to nouns ending in -o ,  -s , -x , -z , -sh or -ch

When the noun ends with -s , -x , -z , -sh or -ch , simply add -es after the noun.

For most nouns ending with the letter -o , you have to add -es after the noun instead of -s .

Add -s  to nouns that end with vowel + y

If a vowel comes before the letter -y , then it’s easy. You simply add -s after the noun.

For nouns ending in -is , drop the -is and then add -es .

Let’s look at some common examples:

For some nouns ending with -f or -fe , you change the F to V and then add -es.

For nouns ending with a consonant + y , the general rule is to drop the -y and add -ies after the noun.

For nouns ending in -us , drop -us and add -i at the end of the word.

A few common examples are:

Change the ending to  -a for certain nouns ending in -on

You probably won’t encounter this class of nouns very often, but it’s still important to know where you might need to use these words:

If you’ve been an English learner for some time, you know there’ll always be special cases that don’t fit into any fixed formats or follow any rules. They are irregular, which means different.

They do things differently from everyone else and that’s what makes them so interesting . They don’t follow the standard rules and have to be memorized.

Let’s look at some examples:

Talk about easy! There are some words that are exactly the same in their singular and plural forms.

Some common examples are below. You might notice that a lot of these words have to do with biology or animals.

Then there are some nouns that have no singular forms or no plural form. Because of this, you only have to learn the one form. 

This is especially true with what’s called  mass nouns . They have no distinct plural forms. Typically, they refer to nouns that often come in groups, or nouns that are somewhat abstract. 

So now, I hope you have a clearer picture of how to make nouns plural in English.

Outside of this list, try to listen to how native speakers use these in their speech. If you don’t have natives around you, find a language exchange partner, or start watching English-language movies and TV shows . 

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As you watch English language content (especially with subtitles), you’ll get more familiar with how plurals work in English by hearing them in context.

It may take some time to become familiar with the rules but that’s okay. To learn them quicker, print out a copy of these rules and keep them handy for your reference. Pretty soon, you’ll be an expert at plural spellings. Good luck!

If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials , as you can see here:

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Essay Plural, What is the Plural of Essay?

Meaning: a short piece of writing on a particular subject.

Table of Contents

Plural of Essay

• dissertation

Essay as a Singular Noun in Example Sentences:

• She submitted her essay before the deadline.
• The student received an A+ on his essay .
• The teacher assigned a persuasive essay for the assignment.
• He spent hours researching and writing the essay .
• The essay explored the theme of identity in literature.
• The scholarship required a well-written essay on a specific topic.
• The university professor provided feedback on the essay .
• The essay was published in a renowned academic journal.

Essay as a Plural Noun in Example Sentences:

• The students submitted their essays for grading.
• The conference received numerous essays from scholars around the world.
• The collection of essays covered a wide range of topics.
• The professor assigned weekly essays to encourage critical thinking.
• The finalists presented their essays in front of the audience.
• The anthology included essays from various renowned authors.
• The competition aimed to recognize outstanding essays on social issues.
• The workshop focused on refining students’ persuasive essays .

Singular Possessive of Essay:

The singular possessive form of “Essay” is “Essay’s”.

Examples of Singular Possessive Form of Essay:

• I need to read Essay’s conclusion.
• The topic of Essay’s first paragraph is intriguing.
• Have you seen Essay’s thesis statement?
• I appreciate Essay’s insightful analysis.
• The structure of Essay’s body paragraphs is clear.
• Essay’s introduction captures the reader’s attention.
• I admire Essay’s coherent argumentation.
• Essay’s conclusion summarizes the main points.
• Can you provide me with Essay’s bibliography?
• The evidence in Essay’s supporting paragraphs is compelling.

Plural Possessive of Essay:

The plural possessive form of “Essay” is “Essays'”.

Examples of Plural Possessive Form of Essay:

• I need to read the Essays’ conclusions.
• The topics of the Essays’ first paragraphs are diverse.
• Have you seen the Essays’ thesis statements?
• I appreciate the Essays’ insightful analyses.
• The structures of the Essays’ body paragraphs are well-organized.
• The Essays’ introductions engage the readers effectively.
• I admire the Essays’ coherent argumentations.
• The Essays’ conclusions summarize the main points eloquently.
• Can you provide me with the Essays’ bibliographies?
• The evidence in the Essays’ supporting paragraphs is substantial.

Explore Related Nouns:

• Complete List of Singular Plurals

Last updated on June 9th, 2023 at 09:23 pm

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• 1.1 Pronunciation
• 1.4 Anagrams
• 2.1 Pronunciation

English [ edit ]

Pronunciation [ edit ].

• IPA ( key ) : /ˈɛseɪz/
• IPA ( key ) : /ɛˈseɪz/
• Rhymes: -eɪz
• Hyphenation: es‧says

Noun [ edit ]

• plural of essay

Verb [ edit ]

• third-person singular simple present indicative of essay

Anagrams [ edit ]

• Sesays , Sessay

Dutch [ edit ]

• English 2-syllable words
• English terms with IPA pronunciation
• English terms with audio links
• Rhymes:English/eɪz
• Rhymes:English/eɪz/2 syllables
• English non-lemma forms
• English noun forms
• English verb forms
• Dutch terms with audio links
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John McWhorter

Lets chill out about apostrophes.

By John McWhorter

Opinion Writer

The North Yorkshire Council in England has been in the hot seat recently for its changes to street signs — not because of anything on them, but rather because of something left off. One street in the town of Harrogate was rendered as St. Marys Walk. No apostrophe. Outrage ensued.

The problem, punctilious observers argued, was that the nearby church is and always will be St. Mary’s — with an apostrophe, thank you very much — and leaving that bit of punctuation out of the name of the road obscures that vital and historical connection. Plus it’s just plain ignorant.

St. Marys Walk was just the beginning. It turns out the county plans to phase out apostrophes on all street signs, in part “to prevent complications while searching on databases,” an official told my Times colleague Jenny Gross .

The intensity of the debate may seem surprising. How many people would really miss the connection between St. Marys Walk and St. Mary’s Church? Language lives in, and on, context, and the context here is unmistakable. The truth is, apostrophes in general don’t make our language much clearer. We could really do without most of them.

Their deployment is governed by some rather fine rules — is it “my uncle’s book” or “my uncles’ book”? “It’s” or “its”? — that take a bit of effort to master. As such, their proper use conveys precision but also something else, something harder to put one’s finger on. I admit that seeing anyone over the age of 15 use its instead of it’s, or your instead of you’re, makes me wince a little. But it shouldn’t.

English seemed to get along just fine without apostrophes until the 1500s. Chaucer wouldn’t have known one if it bit him. The first edition of Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost” had it as “Loues Labors Loſt” (also, life went on with u standing for both u and v). Of course, no one was missing electricity, microchips or “Family Guy” episodes either, despite how useful they would have been.

Using an apostrophe to indicate something missing — like the “i” that gets lost when “it is” becomes “it’s” — serves only as a kind of formulaic salute to an earlier phase of the language. Consider “Bill’s in the room.” The apostrophe is there to let you know we’re talking about a man called Bill rather than a wad of paper money. But even without the apostrophe, context would instantly make the meaning clear. Is it a story about a fervent search for bank notes? “There’s my book,” I write — though there is no such thing as “theres” to distinguish the word from, except perhaps in a poem.

And then we have the counsel from some quarters to use an apostrophe alone to indicate possession in nouns that end in “s” — “the boss’ problem” — which gives readers no visual clue that you pronounce it “boss-es,” a problem in a language where the relationship between spelling and sound is already so grievously fraught.

Finally, the way the apostrophe forces a distinction between “it’s” and “its,” and “you’re” and “your,” is just as decorative. “Its a rainy day” does not leave us scratching our chins over why a rainy day might belongs to an it. “Its your birthday — your 17!” may look barbaric to our eyes, but thanks to context it occasions no loss of clarity. No one would seriously think the reference was to someone possessing the number 17. Surely if we can deal with rabbits running fast and chairs stuck fast to the floor, or to seeding a watermelon and seeding a field, we could deal with its and your having two meanings.

I’m not suggesting we eliminate the apostrophe, but I would rather retain it for cases where there is a genuine possibility of ambiguity. A sign near dumpsters that says “Residents refuse to be placed in bins” could — theoretically — be interpreted as referring to people’s unwillingness to be placed in the trash. “Love’s Labour’s Lost” is another example, as it is genuinely unclear without an apostrophe whether we’re talking about “labors” in the plural or a contraction of “labor is.” I envision an alternate universe where the apostrophe would occur in English about as often as the dieresis on words like “naïve” does under some publications’ stylebook rules.

In my experience, any such suggestion that we loosen rules around punctuation elicits not just disagreement but near fury.

Some years ago I wrote something skeptical about the Oxford comma and it caused a whole kerfuffle, with endless accusations that I was the Professor Who Wants to Abolish the Comma Entirely. I got interview requests from as far as Europe.

But no. For one thing, language always changes, and I sense that the American public has opened up to this considerably over the past 20 years or so as technology has allowed public linguists to get the word out beyond the medium of the book. Still, even people who are comfortable with the idea that words evolve may not realize that punctuation does, too. Writing does not entail immutable rules in the way that mathematics does.

Not so long ago, it was common to capitalize nouns for rhetorical purpose: “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Donald Trump’s penchant for this — “Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order — respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue” — would have seemed almost elegant 200 years ago (even though blue isn’t a noun in this instance). Now, we restrict the capital letter to proper nouns and the start of sentences. The world has kept spinning — and would continue to do so if we stopped using capital letters entirely.

So why does the issue of apostrophes elicit rage? Using them (or not) is a simple procedural matter. Would people take umbrage if a chef suggested loosening the rules of a recipe? “How dare you suggest it isn’t necessary to braise the meat before adding other ingredients!”

I suggest that the visceral sentiment in this case is actually a kind of classism — one from which I cannot honestly exempt myself. When we no longer talk (at least overtly) of people marrying “beneath” themselves, when the difference in dress style between the rich and the poor is much less stark than it was in the past, when popular entertainment is no longer considered the province of “the lower orders,” blackboard grammar rules provide one of last permissible ways to look down on others.

This is why it is important to know that in an alternate universe — such as Chaucer’s — apostrophe-free English could be perfectly comprehensible and eminently legitimate. We should resist a sense that people who never quite master “it’s” and “you’re” are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. The rule they are having trouble with is one that was never really necessary anyway.

We aren’t going to stop using apostrophes. But it would help to understand that we could, with no harm to anyone.

John McWhorter ( @JohnHMcWhorter ) is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University. He is the author of “ Nine Nasty Words : English in the Gutter: Then, Now and Forever” and, most recently, “ Woke Racism : How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America.” @ JohnHMcWhorter