Literature Glossary

Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.

Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.

Prose

Definition:

If the lines of whatever you're reading go all the way to the end of the paper or screen, congratulations, you're reading prose. It's really that simple.

Prose is everything that's not poetry, which means you're reading prose right now.

But alas,
now you are
not.

Novels? Prose (for the most part). Newspapers? Prose. Your biology textbook? Prose. And if you ever find a biology textbook written in poetry, by all means, please send it our way.

Tags: General, Novel