anecdote
Syllables: a·nec·doteUK/ˈæn.ɪkˌdəʊt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia[ˈæn.ɪkˌdəʉt]
anecdote noun: a short account of a real incident or person, often humorous or interesting.
Noun
anecdote (countable and uncountable, plural anecdotes)
Verb
anecdote (third-person singular simple present anecdotes, present participle anecdoting, simple past and past participle anecdoted)
- To tell anecdotes (about).
- They were all men of the same set, knowing one another intimately, and knowing the same people; so they fell to talking and anecdoting in such pleasant wise that dinner-time approached […]1879, Eustace Clare Grenville Murray, That Artful Vicar
- Bob anecdoted the circus he and Jimmy had seen that afternoon.1986, Elliot L. Gilbert, Best Short Stories from the California Quarterly, 1971-1985, page 101
anecdote meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
anecdote in Hindi
- उपाख्यान
anecdote in Marathi
- उपाख्यान
anecdote in Urdu
- چٹکلا, حکایت, نقل, قصہ
anecdote in Bengali
- উপাখ্যান
More languagesFewer languages
- anecdote in Malayalam
- സംഭവചരിത്രം, ചെറുകഥ, ഉപാഖ്യാനം
- anecdote in Kannada
- ದಂತಕಥೆ, ಆಖ್ಯಾಯಿಕೆ, ಉಪಾಖ್ಯಾನ, ಕಥಾನಕ
- anecdote in Odia
- ଉପାଖ୍ଯ଼ାନ, ଉପାଖ୍ଯାନ
- anecdote in Nepali
- उपाख्यान
- anecdote in Arabic
- نَادِرَة nādira, أُطْرُوفَة ʔuṭrūfa, أُفْكُوهَة ʔufkūha, طُرْفَة ṭurfa
- anecdote in Malay
- anekdot
- anecdote in Indonesian
- anekdot
- anecdote in Persian
- لطیفه latife
- anecdote in Thai
- เรื่องขำขัน rʉ̂ʉang-kǎm-kǎn, ชวนหัว chuuan-hǔua
- anecdote in Vietnamese
- giai thoại
Examples of anecdote in a sentence
- Such anecdotes give one a taste of life on a trauma ward.
- The politician had a bagful of humorous anecdotes she could interject into any spur of the moment stump speech.
- The person who introduced me stepped on my lines by giving a long summary, including all the good anecdotes.
Forms of anecdote
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | anecdotes |
| alternative form | anecdota |
| alternative form | anecdoton |
| alternative form | anecdotum |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | anecdotes |
| present participle | anecdoting |
| past participle | anecdoted |
| past | anecdoted |
Origin of anecdote
Late 17ᵗʰ c., from French anecdote, from Ancient Greek ἀνέκδοτος (anékdotos, “accounts unpublished”), from ἀν- (an-, “not, un-”) + ἔκδοτος (ékdotos, “published”), from ἐκδίδωμι (ekdídōmi, “I publish”), from ἐκ- (ek-, “out”) + δίδωμι (dídōmi, “I give”). Virtually identical cognates in other European languages – French anecdote, German Anekdote, Spanish anécdota, among others.
Words formed from anecdote
Questions about anecdote
- What does anecdote mean?
- Anecdote means a short account of a real incident or person, often humorous or interesting.
- What is anecdote in Hindi?
- Anecdote in Hindi is उपाख्यान. See Anecdote meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is anecdote?
- Anecdote can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce anecdote?
- Anecdote is pronounced /ˈæn.ɪkˌdəʊt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of anecdote?
- The plural of anecdote is anecdotes.
Words near anecdote in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: anecdote (page history and authors); anecdote (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); anecdote (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); anecdote (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); anecdote (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); anecdote (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); anecdote (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); anecdote (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); anecdote (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-anecdote.ogg.
Cite this entry: “anecdote.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/anecdote. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.