footnote
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A printed note placed below the text on a printed page.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fuutnohtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfʊtnoʊt
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 printed note placed below the text on a printed page
A short piece of text, often numbered, placed at the bottom of a printed page, that adds a comment, citation, reference etc, to a designated part of the main text.
by extension
An event of lesser importance than some larger event to which it is related.
A qualification to the import of something.
verb
To add footnotes to a text.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A printed note placed below the text on a printed page
Used this way, footnote is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use footnote
- “He added a footnote to clarify the source of the information.”
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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.