historical
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events.
historical records;
historical research.
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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.
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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.
Yet the fear of AI appears to be vastly outrunning reality, based on current labor-market trends and also the long historical record of new technologies.
From MarketWatch
On one hand, “someone can argue that Block is not exactly a poster child of an efficiently run company,” noting “duplicate cost functions across Block” on a historical basis.
From MarketWatch
This type of historical storytelling does have its limitations.
Other historical Pasadena figures in the book include the bookseller A.C.
Among his many works of fiction were political thrillers, historical epics and drolly observed comedies.
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.