Library / English Dictionary |
HISTORICAL
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Belonging to the past; of what is important or famous in the past
Example:
a historical character
Synonyms:
historic; historical
Classified under:
Similar:
past (earlier than the present time; no longer current)
Derivation:
historicalness (significance owing to its history)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Having once lived or existed or taken place in the real world as distinct from being legendary
Example:
actual historical events
Classified under:
Similar:
existent; real (being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not illusory)
Derivation:
historicalness (the state of having in fact existed in the past)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Used of the study of a phenomenon (especially language) as it changes through time
Example:
diachronic linguistics
Synonyms:
diachronic; historical
Classified under:
Adjectives
Domain category:
language; linguistic communication (a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols)
Derivation:
historicalness (significance owing to its history)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Of or relating to the study of history
Example:
a historical perspective
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Antonym:
ahistorical (unconcerned with or unrelated to history or to historical development or to tradition)
Pertainym:
history (the discipline that records and interprets past events involving human beings)
Derivation:
historicalness (significance owing to its history)
history (the discipline that records and interprets past events involving human beings)
Context examples:
It was an historical subject, painted at my father’s desire, and represented Caroline Beaufort in an agony of despair, kneeling by the coffin of her dead father.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Based on the historical pattern, it is very likely that a global dust storm will begin within a few weeks or months of this date.
(Study Predicts Next Global Dust Storm on Mars, NASA)
The body's immune responses to the Zika and dengue viruses are so similar that, until now, it has been difficult to tell a recent Zika infection from a historical dengue infection.
(New blood test to detect Zika approved in Brazil, SciDev.Net)
The historical fact that a legal or consanguineous family member has died.
(Deceased Family Member, NCI Thesaurus)
"By combining biological, ecological, historical and sociological analyses, new constraints on the impact of this plague were identified."
(Justinianic plague not a landmark pandemic?, National Science Foundation)
The historical fact that a legal or consanguineous brother or sister has died.
(Deceased Sibling, NCI Thesaurus)
EXAMPLE(S): concurrent, historical, pre/post (patient owned control)
(Interventional Study Protocol Version Control Concurrency Type Code, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)
DNA recovered from ancient biological material (e.g., archaeological and historical skeletal material, mummified tissues, preserved plant remains, ice and permafrost cores).
(Ancient DNA, NCI Thesaurus)
Scientists continue to study the planet’s historical record, trying to understand the apparent shift from an early wet and warm climate to today’s dry and cool surface conditions.
(New Evidence for a Mars Water Reservoir, NASA)
I must congratulate you on coming into the possession, though in rather a tragic manner of a relic which is of great intrinsic value, but of even greater importance as an historical curiosity.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)