Prose is written or spoken language in its ordinary continuous form, without the metrical structure of verse. Most novels, essays, reports, and everyday speech are prose.

Prose can be plain or highly wrought, transparent or ornate. It organizes ideas in sentences and paragraphs rather than in lines and stanzas. Rhythm still matters—good prose has cadence—but the rhythm is not governed by a regular metrical pattern. The distinction from poetry is practical rather than absolute; some prose is more “poetic” than some verse, and free verse can approach the condition of prose.

Writers choose prose when they need the flexibility of unrestricted syntax and the capacity for extended argument, description, or narrative. The form dominates modern storytelling and nonfiction because it accommodates the complexity and length of contemporary subjects without the formal constraints of traditional meter.

Language written in sentences and paragraphs rather than in measured lines is prose.