Definition of "prose" []

• Ordinary speech or writing, without metrical structure. (noun)
• Commonplace expression or quality. (noun)
• Roman Catholic Church A hymn of irregular meter sung before the Gospel. (noun)
• To write prose. (verb-intransitive)
• To speak or write in a dull, tiresome style. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "For practical convenience three main sorts of rhythmic prose may be distinguished: (1) _characteristic prose_, or that in which no regularity (coincidence) is easily appreciable; (2) _cadenced prose_, or that in which the regularity is perceptible, but unobtrusive, and (3) _metrical prose_, or that in which the regularity is so noticeable as to be unpleasing."
• "Yasmin's (Anika Noni Rose) crime report to the police officer, in prose, is almost placid yet intense."
• "The primary issue in prose is motive: You have to understand why the people do what they do, or else the whole shebang falls apart as illusion."