anecdote

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“
And you, gentlemen, I assure you my anecdote is the naked truth.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A short account of an interesting or humorous incident.
  2. noun Secret or hitherto undivulged particulars of history or biography.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • This reminds me of an anecdote which is not given in Mr Graham Balfour's biography. —  Robert Louis Stevenson, A Record, An Estimate, A Memorial
  • Another version of this anecdote is applied to the breaking up of General Early's rashly advanced army in July; but it would seem, by Mr. Medill's name, that this is the genuine; the other is not told in the Western vernacular of Mr. William Sykes THE METEOROLOGICAL OMEN. —  The Lincoln Story Book
  • It is told so much in her manner that one could swear that the originator of the anecdote was aut Eliza, aut diabola . —  The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood
  • Of all the millions who are moved by this historic occasion, while I am amongst these, my anecdote is and would be far less remarkable. —  My Left Wing - Front Page
  • [3 3] This anecdote, which is related in the correspondence of Madame de Bavière, Duchess of Orleans and mother of the Regent, is discredited by Lord John Russell in his History of the principal States of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht_; for what reason he does not inform us. —  Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

allusion ·  reminiscence ·  saying ·  tale ·  illustration ·  memoir ·  joke ·  narrative ·  quotation ·  sketch ·  incident ·  gossip

Used in the same contextWord Family

anecdote:   anecdotes
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, from Greek anekdota, unpublished items : an-, not; see a-1 + ekdota, neuter pl. of ekdotos, published (from ekdidonai, ekdo-, to publish : ek-, out; see ecto- + didonai, to give; see dō- in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French anecdote, first in plural anecdotes, Middle Latin anecdota, from Greek ἀνέκδοτα, plural, things unpublished, applied by Procopius to his memoirs of Justinian, which consisted chiefly of gossip about the private life of the court; properly neuter plural of ἀνέκδοτος, unpublished, not given out, from Greek ἀν- privative + ἒκδοτος, given out, verbal adjective of ἐκδιδόναι, give out, publish, from ἐκ, out (= Latin ex: see ex-), + διδόναι, give, = Latin dare, give: see dose and date.
 

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/ˈænɛkdoʊt/
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