anecdote
noun
Simple meaning
A short account of a real incident or person, often humorous or interesting.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
anuhkdohtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈænəkdoʊt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A short account of a real incident or person, often humorous or interesting.
Short account of an incident (especially a biographical one)
A previously untold secret account of an incident.
An account which supports an argument, but which is not supported by scientific or statistical analysis.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A short account of a real incident or person, often humorous or interesting.
Used this way, anecdote is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. Keep it for friendly, informal settings.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Playful and informal
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Having the character of an anecdote.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.