An essay is a prose work of small volume and free composition, expressing individual impressions and thoughts on a particular subject or issue, and knowingly does not claim to be a determining or exhaustive treatment of the subject.
L.P. Krysin's "Explanatory Dictionary of Foreign Words" defines an essay as " pay for a college paper treating some problems not in a systematic scientific form, but in a free form.
"The Great Encyclopedic Dictionary" gives this definition: "An essay is a genre of philosophical, literary-critical, historical-biographical, publicistic prose, combining an emphasized individual position of the author with a relaxed, often paradoxical narration, oriented to colloquial speech."
"The Concise Literary Encyclopedia" specifies: "An essay is a prose work of small volume and free composition, treating a private subject and presenting an attempt to convey individual impressions and considerations somehow connected with it.