prose

prose [Lat. prosa oratio=straightforward, or direct, speech], meaningful and grammatical written or spoken language that does not utilize the metrical structure, word transposition, or rhyme characteristic of poetry or verse; it is, however, raised above the level of lifeless composition or commonplace conversation by the use of balance, rhythm, repetition, and antithesis. In literature, prose is the usual mode of expression in such forms as the novel, short story, essay, letter (epistle), history, biography, sermon, and oration. The earliest European prose extant is that of Herodotus (5th cent. B.C.).

---

prose

Literary medium distinguished from poetry especially by its greater irregularity and variety of rhythm and its closer correspondence to the patterns of everyday speech. Though it is readily distinguishable from poetry in that it does not treat a line as a formal unit, the significant differences between prose and poetry are of tone, pace, and sometimes subject matter.

---

prose

1. spoken or written language as in ordinary usage, distinguished from poetry by its lack of a marked metrical structure

2. a passage set for translation into a foreign language

3. RC Church a hymn recited or sung after the gradual at Mass

---

1.		PROSE - PROblem Solution Engineering. Numerical problems including differentiation and integration. "Computing in Calculus", J. Thames, Research/Development 26(5) (May 1975).
2.		PROSE - A constraints-and-sequencing system similar to Kaleidoscope. "Reflexive Constraints for Dynamic Knowledge Bases", P. Berlandier et al in Proc First Intl CS Conf '88: AI: Theory and Appls, Dec 1988.