"history" meaning in English

See history in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈhɪst(ə)ri/ Audio: en-us-history.ogg [US], en-uk-history.ogg [UK] Forms: history [singular], histories [plural]
enPR: hĭsʹt(ə)rē Head templates: {{noun|2=histories}} [POS TABLE]
  1. History is what happened in the past.
    Sense id: simple-history-en-noun-5ieTNmM1
  2. History is the study of what happened in the past.
    Sense id: simple-history-en-noun-xhD2bcC9
  3. If somebody or something makes history, they do something very important that will not be forgotten.
    Sense id: simple-history-en-noun-antsYRQm
  4. If somebody or something goes down in history, they are remembered by people because they were very important or well known.
    Sense id: simple-history-en-noun-dvS51jxV
  5. A history is a book recording things that have happened.
    Sense id: simple-history-en-noun-G6a1wbRV
  6. If somebody or something has a history of something, it's very common for them.
    Sense id: simple-history-en-noun-OemOLwxk
  7. If you say something is history, you mean it's finished, over, dead, or not important any more.
    Sense id: simple-history-en-noun-Qu86i0VF
  8. If you say the rest is history, you mean you don't have to tell about because everyone already knows.
    Sense id: simple-history-en-noun-DtJmnQ4H
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "history",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "histories",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "2": "histories"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "his‧to‧ry; hist‧ory",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "China has many old books about its history."
        },
        {
          "text": "The restaurant is close to the city's history and art museums."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "History is what happened in the past."
      ],
      "id": "simple-history-en-noun-5ieTNmM1",
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He is a professor of history."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "History is the study of what happened in the past."
      ],
      "id": "simple-history-en-noun-xhD2bcC9",
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She made history by becoming Africa's first elected female president."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If somebody or something makes history, they do something very important that will not be forgotten."
      ],
      "id": "simple-history-en-noun-antsYRQm"
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She'll go down in history as one of our greatest writers."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If somebody or something goes down in history, they are remembered by people because they were very important or well known."
      ],
      "id": "simple-history-en-noun-dvS51jxV"
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He was reading a history of Ancient Rome."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A history is a book recording things that have happened."
      ],
      "id": "simple-history-en-noun-G6a1wbRV",
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She has a history of cheating on tests."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If somebody or something has a history of something, it's very common for them."
      ],
      "id": "simple-history-en-noun-OemOLwxk"
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "OK, that game's history."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you say something is history, you mean it's finished, over, dead, or not important any more."
      ],
      "id": "simple-history-en-noun-Qu86i0VF"
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They just happened to run into each other at the right time, and the rest is history."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you say the rest is history, you mean you don't have to tell about because everyone already knows."
      ],
      "id": "simple-history-en-noun-DtJmnQ4H"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "hĭsʹt(ə)rē"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈhɪst(ə)ri/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"hIst@ri/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-history.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-history.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "history"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "history",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "histories",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "2": "histories"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "his‧to‧ry; hist‧ory",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "China has many old books about its history."
        },
        {
          "text": "The restaurant is close to the city's history and art museums."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "History is what happened in the past."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He is a professor of history."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "History is the study of what happened in the past."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She made history by becoming Africa's first elected female president."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If somebody or something makes history, they do something very important that will not be forgotten."
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She'll go down in history as one of our greatest writers."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If somebody or something goes down in history, they are remembered by people because they were very important or well known."
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Countable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He was reading a history of Ancient Rome."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A history is a book recording things that have happened."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She has a history of cheating on tests."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If somebody or something has a history of something, it's very common for them."
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "OK, that game's history."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you say something is history, you mean it's finished, over, dead, or not important any more."
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They just happened to run into each other at the right time, and the rest is history."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you say the rest is history, you mean you don't have to tell about because everyone already knows."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "hĭsʹt(ə)rē"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈhɪst(ə)ri/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"hIst@ri/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-history.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-history.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "history"
}

Download raw JSONL data for history meaning in English (2.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-30 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (fef8596 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.