Historical Meaning
/hɪˈstɒɹɪkəl/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjOf, concerning, or in accordance with recorded history, (particularly) as opposed to legends, myths, and fictions.
adjOf, concerning, or in accordance with recorded history, (particularly) as opposed to legends, myths, and fictions., About history; depicting persons or events from history.
Sentence Examples
We have a rich historical heritage.
You'll find that book in the historical section of the library.
You must place these events in their historical context.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The museum has a collection of ____ documents from the war.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The movie is based on ____ facts, but some of the characters are fictional.
Word Origin & History
From Latin historicus (“historical”) + -al (forming adjectives denoting of or relating to). By surface analysis, history + -ical.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"For in the contexte historicalle [Latin: In historico... contextu], the rewle off lyvenge and forme of vertues moralle and the incentiue of manhode ȝiffe grete resplendence thro the diligence of croniclers."
— a. 1475, chapter 5, in Higden's Polychronicon, volume I:
"The family tree boasts an astonishing array of celebrated historical figures from the prophet Isaiah to Sir Isaiah Berlin, from Felix Mendelssohn to Karl Marx and Moses Montefiore. The list also includes Yehudi Menuhin, Helena Rubinstein, the Rothschilds and even Rosenstein himself."
— 2004 October 24, Bill Gladstone, “The oldest family in the world”, in Jewish Telegraphic Agency:
"There is no acknowledgment—because there is no understanding—that sometimes historical fiction departs from facts in order to reach for more abstract, thematic, or complexly intuitive truths that even the most diligently fact-checked histories and biographies can fail to illuminate."
— 2015 January 28, Mark Harris, “How 'Selma' Got Smeared”, in Grantland:
"Hagiography, the historical genre which is the subject of this week's seminar, comprises narratives concerned with the saints and their achievements, especially the miracles which God has performed through them and on their behalf."
— 2017 December 8, Paul Hayward, “Seminar VII: Hagiography”, in Medieval Primary Sources—Genre, Rhetoric and Transmission:
"Sith thou gaue to vs a floure most riall Redolent in cronicles with historicall syght."
— 1521, Henry Bradshaw, The Holy Lyfe and History of Saynt Werburge, Ballad 1:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The museum has a collection of ____ documents from the war.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The movie is based on ____ facts, but some of the characters are fictional.