Adjacent Words

historical definitions

	Tweet

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: of or relating to the study of history; "historical scholars"; "a historical perspective" [ant: ahistorical]
2: having once lived or existed or taken place in the real world as distinct from being legendary; "the historical Jesus"; "doubt that a historical Camelot every existed"; "actual historical events"
3: belonging to the past; of what is important or famous in the past; "historic victories"; "historical (or historic) times"; "a historical character" [syn: historic, historical]
4: used of the study of a phenomenon (especially language) as it changes through time; "diachronic linguistics" [syn: diachronic, historical] [ant: synchronic]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 15th century 1. a. of, relating to, or having the character of history <historical data> b. based on history <historical novels> c. used in the past and reproduced in historical presentations 2. famous in history ; historic a 3. a. secondary 1c b. diachronic <historical grammar> • historicalness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 of or concerning history (historical evidence). 2 belonging to history, not to prehistory or legend. 3 (of the study of a subject) based on an analysis of its development over a period. 4 belonging to the past, not the present. 5 (of a novel, a film, etc.) dealing or professing to deal with historical events. 6 in connection with history, from the historian's point of view (of purely historical interest). Derivatives: historically adv.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Historic His*tor"ic, Historical His*tor"ic*al, a. [L. historicus, Gr. ?: cf. F. historique. See History.] Of or pertaining to history, or the record of past events; as, an historical poem; the historic page. -- His*tor"ic*al*ness, n. -- His*to*ric"i*ty, n. There warriors frowning in historic brass. --Pope. Historical painting, that branch of painting which represents the events of history. Historical sense, that meaning of a passage which is deduced from the circumstances of time, place, etc., under which it was written. The historic sense, the capacity to conceive and represent the unity and significance of a past era or age.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Historical people, situations, or things existed in the past and are considered to be a part of history. ...an important historical figure. ...the historical impact of Western capitalism on the world... ADJ: ADJ n • historically Historically, royal marriages have been cold, calculating affairs. ADV 2. Historical books, films, or pictures describe or represent people, situations, or things that existed in the past. He is writing a historical novel about nineteenth-century France. ADJ: ADJ n 3. Historical information, research, and discussion is related to the study of history. ...historical records. ...modern historical research. ADJ: ADJ n 4. If you look at an event within a historical context, you look at what was happening at that time and what had happened previously, in order to judge the event and its importance. It was this kind of historical context that Morris brought to his work... ADJ: ADJ n

Moby Thesaurus

absolute, actual, admitting no question, ascertained, attested, authentic, authenticated, autobiographical, biographical, categorically true, certain, certified, chronologic, confirmable, confirmed, corroborated, de facto, demonstrable, demonstratable, demonstrated, determined, documentary, documented, effectual, established, factual, for real, genuine, hagiographic, historic, historied, historiographic, honest-to-God, inappealable, incontestable, incontrovertible, indisputable, indubitable, irrefragable, irrefutable, legendary, martyrologic, not in error, objectively true, positive, provable, proved, real, recorded, reliable, self-evident, substantial, substantiated, sure-enough, testable, traditional, true, true as gospel, truthful, unanswerable, unconfutable, unconfuted, undeniable, undenied, undoubted, unerroneous, unfallacious, unfalse, unimpeachable, unmistaken, unquestionable, unrefutable, unrefuted, validated, veracious, verifiable, verified, veritable