Prosaic

Definition: Prosaic

Prosaic

Adjective

1. Not fanciful or imaginative; "local guides describe the history of various places in matter-of-fact tones"; "a prosaic and unimaginative essay".

2. Lacking wit or imagination; "a pedestrian movie plot".

3. Not challenging; dull and lacking excitement; "an unglamorous job greasing engines".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "prosaic" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. (references)

Synonyms: Prosaic

Dullness

Adjective: dull, dull as ditch water; unentertaining, uninteresting, flat, dry as dust; unfunny, unlively, logy; unimaginative; insulse; dry as dust; prosy, prosing, prosaic; matter of fact, commonplace, pedestrian, pointless; "weary stale flat and unprofitable".

Feebleness

Adjective: feeble, bald, tame, meager, jejune, vapid, bland, trashy, lukewarm, cold, frigid, poor, dull, dry, languid; colorless, enervated; proposing, prosy, prosaic; unvaried, monotonous, weak, washy, wishy-washy; sketchy, slight.

Imbecility Folly

Shallow, borne, weak, wanting, soft, sappy, spoony; dull, dull as a beetle; stupid, heavy, insulse, obtuse, blunt, stolid, doltish; asinine; inapt; prosaic; hebetudinous.

Plainness

Adjective: plain, simple; unornamented, unadorned, unvarnished; homely, homespun; neat; severe, chaste, pure, Saxon; commonplace, matter-of-fact, natural, prosaic.

Prose

Adjective: prosal,prosy, prosaic; unpoetic, unpoetical.

Crosswords: Prosaic

No, no! He would never do anything that prosaic! (You've Got Mail; writing credit: Nora Ephron)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Boojums All the Way through : Communicating Science in a Prosaic Age (reference)

• Composing Teacher-Research: A Prosaic History (Suny Series, Teacher Preparation and Development) (reference)

• Confessions of a Prosaic Dreamer: Charles Lamb's Art of Autobiography (reference)

• Provocative Prosaic Insights (reference)

• Whistler: Prosaic Views, Poetic Vision (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The prosaic motive detracted nothing from the bravery of the action.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expression using "prosaic": prosaic person. Additional references.

Beginning with "prosaic": prosaic-sounding.

Albanian

prozaik (earthly, prosy). (various references)

Arabic 

‏مبتذل (banal, common, commonplace, conventional, corny, everyday, fade, fading, hack, hackneyed, outworn, overused, pedestrian, platitudinous, plebeian, prose, routine, slipshod, stale, stereotyped, tacky, threadbare, tired, trite, trivial, vapid, vulgar, well worn, workaday, worn out), ‏نثري (prose), ‏غير ممتع (insipid, tame), ‏عادي (average, banal, classless, common, commonplace, conventional, household, lay, mean, medial, mediocre, middling, mundane, natural, normal, ordinary, plain, plebeian, poor, run of the mill, second rate, simple, some, stock, trivial, unexceptional, wont), ‏ركيك (pedestrian, weak). (various references)

Bulgarian 

скучен (arid, dead alive, drear, dryasdust, dull, dumb, dusty, heartbreaking, heavy, humdrum, insipid, jejune, jogtrot, long, long winded, long-spun, moldy, monotonous, mouldy, mousey, plodding, pokey, ponderous, prosy, slow, soggy, stodgy, stuffy, tedious, uninspired, uninteresting, unvaried, vapid, weariful, wearisome), неинтересен (unamusing, uninteresting), прозаичен (literal, matter of fact, pedestrian, prose, prosy, unimaginative, unromantic, workaday). (various references)

Czech

prozaický (down to earth, everyday, prosy, unimaginative). (various references)

Farsi 

نثری , کسل کننده (Drab, Drowsy, Irksome, Tedious), وابسته به نثر, خالی ازلطف (Ungraceful). (various references)

Finnish

proosallinen. (various references)

French

prosaïque. (various references)

German

prosaisch (literal, mundane, pedestrian, prosaically, prose). (various references)

Greek 

μονότονοσ (blank, monotonous, prosaical, unvaried), πεζόσ (afloot, infantryman, pedestrian, prosaical, prosy, unimaginative), ανιαρόσ (borer, boring, drab, dull, irksome, prosaical, prosy, stodgy, tedious, uninteresting, wearisome, weary), τετριμμένοσ (banal, commonplace, hackneyed, outworn, platitudinous, prosaical, shopworn, threadbare, trite, well worn, worn out). (various references)

Hebrew 

שכיח (common, frequent, habitual, medial, usual), פרוזאי (matter of fact, prosy). (various references)

Hungarian

unalmas (bald, boring, cut and dried, dry, dull, dusty, groaty, grotty, heavy, humdrum, insipid, languid, muzzy, pokey, prosy, repetitious, tedious, tiresome, tiring, witless), prózai (literal, matter-of-fact, prose). (various references)

Italian

prosaico (matter of fact, pedestrian, prosy). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

散文的 . (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

さ�"ぶ�"てき. (various references)

Manx

eig (decease, stale, unexciting, vapid, wishy-washy), cadjinagh (commoner, commonly, generally, prevalent, public, vulgarly). (various references)

Pig Latin

osaicpray

Portuguese

prosaico (literal, matter-of-fact, pedestrian, prosy, unimaginative, workaday), vulgar (accepted, artless, banal, blanket, coarse, common, commonplace, demotic, dismal, earthy, everyday, gossipy, gross, hackney, hackneyed, humdrum, inelaborate, low, low-minded, mediocre, ordinary, pedestrian, penny-a-line, platitudinarian, platitudinous, quotidian, ready-made, soulless, trite, trivial, undistinguished, uninspired, unladylike, unoriginal, usual, vulgar, vulgarian), sem interesse (arid, chippy, flat, pet, soulless, tame, vapid, vapidity), sem beleza poética, relativo � prosa, banal (banal, characterless, common, commonplace, dismal, flimsy, hackneyed, humdrum, platitudinarian, platitudinous, potty, prosy, quotidian, ready-made, stale, trifling, trite, trivial, undistinguished, unimportant, unoriginal, vulgar). (various references)

Romanian

prozaic (bread and butter, commonplace, matter of fact, pedestrian, prosaically, prosily, prosy, unimaginative, unpoetical, workaday). (various references)

Russian 

прозаичный (matter of fact, matter-of-fact, prosy). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

prozni (prosy), prozaičan, svakidašnji (everyday, vernacular, workaday), običan (common, habitual, ordinary, plain, quotidian, unexceptionable, unexceptional, usual). (various references)

Spanish

prosaico (earthbound, everyday, matter of fact, ordinary, pedestrian, prose, prosy, workaday). (various references)

Swedish

prosaisk (matter of fact, pedestrian). (various references)

Turkish

yavan (arid, bald, crude, cut and dried, dry, frail, insipid, jaded, jejune, meager, meagre, milk and water, platitudinous, prose, prosy, tasteless, uninspired, vapid, watery), sıradan (average, banal, blah, casual, casually, common, common or garden, commonplace, copybook, cut and dried, exoteric, hack, hackneyed, mediocre, nondescript, ordinary, quotidian, regular, routine, run-off-the-mill, small, straight, unexceptional, workaday), düzyazı şeklinde, bayağı (banal, camp, cheap, coarse, coarse grained, common, common as dirt, commonplace, corrupt, dastardly, debased, goodish, inferior, lewd, little, low camp, low class, no class, ordinary, plebeian, pretty, quite, rather, run-off-the-mill, shoddy, tawdry, tolerably, vulgar), şiirsel olmayan (prose, unpoetic, unpoetical). (various references)

Ukrainian

нудний (arid, barren, dead alive, depressing, heartbreaking, humdrum, insipid, irksome, long winded, matter of fact, monotonous, prolix, prosy, repetitious, soggy, stodgy, stuffy, stupid, tedious, weariful, wearying, workaday), прозаїчний (earthly, pedestrian, prosy, unimaginative). (various references)

Vietnamese 

thiếu cái đẹp của chất thơ; không thơ mộng tầm thường, như văn xuôi, nôm na không có chất thơ, dung tục; bu�"n tẻ, chán ngắt (dull, dullness, dully, dulness, long-winded, mouldy, pedestrian, tedious, wearied, weary), có tính chất văn xuôi. (various references)

Welsh

rhyddieithol (prose). (various references)

prosa. (various references)

prosaicus. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "prosaic": prosaically. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Prosaic" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: posaic, potamic, presic, Presnail, Prionsias, proosian, prosa, prosac, prosail, Prosecco, Proseoia, prosiac, Prosim, prosimii, prosopic, prosti, proteic, protic, prozac, prozaic. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: picaros.

-1 letter: capris, copras, picaro, scoria.

-2 letters: aspic, capos, carpi, carps, coirs, copra, coria, corps, craps, crisp, crops, orcas, pairs, paris, picas, pisco, praos, proas, psoai, sapor, scarp, scrap, scrip, spica.

-3 letters: airs, arco, arcs, asci, capo, caps, carp, cars, ciao, coir, cops, cors, crap, cris, crop, oars, ocas, orca, orcs, osar, pacs, pair, pars.

+1 letter: apricots, parsonic, picadors, piscator, saprobic, sporadic.

+2 letters: acropolis, caparison, caponiers, caprioles, caryopsis, copremias, dropsical, hippocras, impactors, operatics, paranoics, picadores, picaroons, piclorams, picograms, piscators, piscatory, procaines, proclaims, prophasic, proscenia, prostatic, psoriatic, rapacious, rhapsodic, saprozoic.

+3 letters: aeciospore, aphoristic, apocarpies, archbishop, ascocarpic, ascosporic, ascription, capacitors, caparisons, capriccios, capricious, captoprils, carpaccios, chipboards, clipboards, comparison, conspiracy, factorship, kiloparsec, megasporic, paranoiacs, paregorics, parodistic, pickaroons, picofarads, pictograms, pictorials, porcelains, precarious, predacious, prolactins, prosodical, psoriatics, saprogenic, sarcophagi, schizocarp, scorpaenid, scriptoria, sporicidal, supraoptic.