historical
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events.
historical records;
historical research.
-
based on or reconstructed from an event, custom, style, etc., in the past.
a historical reenactment of the battle of Gettysburg.
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having once existed or lived in the real world, as opposed to being part of legend or fiction or as distinguished from religious belief.
Scholars doubt that a historical Camelot ever existed.
Her thesis was an overview of how theologians have studied the historical Jesus.
-
narrated or mentioned in history; belonging to the past.
He cited several historical examples of international conflict resolution.
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relating to or involving analysis based on a comparison among several periods of development of a phenomenon, as in language or economics.
She taught a course in historical linguistics.
adjective
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belonging to or typical of the study of history
historical methods
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concerned with or treating of events of the past
historical accounts
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based on or constituting factual material as distinct from legend or supposition
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based on or inspired by history
a historical novel
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occurring or prominent in history
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a less common word for historic
Other Word Forms
- antihistorical adjective
- antihistoricalness noun
- historically adverb
- historicalness noun
- nonhistorical adjective
- nonhistoricalness noun
- pseudohistorical adjective
- quasi-historical adjective
- semihistorical adjective
- superhistorical adjective
- unhistorical adjective
Etymology
Origin of historical
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin historic(us) historic ( def. ) + -al 1 ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Researchers believe this method could be applied to other archived seafood, such as canned sardines, offering a new way to explore historical ecosystems.
From Science Daily
John Barnard, a wetland specialist, said: "There are historical records of swallowtails right across East Yorkshire. So bringing milk parsley back basically puts things in place for where they originally lived."
From BBC
There’s a “tactical buying opportunity” as concerns about AI and regulatory matters lead Meta’s stock to trade at an unusually large discount to its historical average.
Nevertheless, the unemployment rate remains below the historical average partly because the labor pool is shrinking.
From Barron's
Their reasoning appeared to largely rest on historical precedent: When stocks retreat due to a geopolitical shock, they often recover within a matter of weeks, if not days.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
