Join free

prosaic

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

prosaic

  • /pɹəʊˈzeɪ.ɪk/ UK
  • /pɹoʊˈzeɪ.ɪk/ US

Rhymes with -eɪɪk

Where it comes from

From Middle French prosaïque, from Medieval Latin prosaicus (“in prose”), from Latin prosa (“prose”), from prorsus (“straightforward, in prose”), from Old Latin provorsus (“straight ahead”), from pro- (“forward”) + vorsus (“turned”), from vertō (“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, to bend”).

adjective more prosaic · most prosaic

  1. Pertaining to or having the characteristics of prose. The tenor of Eliot's prosaic work differs greatly from that of his poetry.

    Opposite: poetic

  2. of writing or speaking Straightforward; matter-of-fact; lacking the feeling or elegance of poetry. I was simply making the prosaic point that we are running late.
  3. usually, of writing or speaking but also figurative Overly plain, simple or commonplace, to the point of being boring. His account of the incident was so prosaic that I nodded off while reading it.

    Similar: humdrum, dull, unimaginative, banal, basic, mindless, beat, blah, commonplace, bland, boring, cold · Opposite: turgid, bombastic, flowery

Translations

Every language

adj pertaining to or having the characteristics of prose

Españolprosaico
日本語散文的な sanbunteki na
中文散文式的 sǎnwénshì de
Portuguêsprosaico
Deutschprosaisch
Italianoprosastico
Ελληνικάπεζός pezós
Русскийпрозаический prozaičeskij

adj straightforward; matter-of-fact; lacking the feeling or elegance of poetry

中文就事論事的 /就事论事的 jiù shì lùn shì de, 不帶感情的 /不带感情的 bù dài gǎnqíng de
Ελληνικάπεζός pezós

adj overly plain or simple, to the point of being boring; humdrum

Españolprosaico
日本語退屈な taikutsu na, 単調な tanchō na
中文平淡的 píngdàn de, 乏味的 fáwèi de
Deutschprosaisch
Italianoprosaico, terra terra
Ελληνικάκοινότοπος koinótopos, πεζός pezós, τετριμμένος tetrimménos

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"prosaic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/prosaic. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

prosaic. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/prosaic

Chicago

"prosaic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/prosaic.

BibTeX
@misc{prosaic_2026,
  title = {prosaic},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/prosaic},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}