ANECDOTE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does anecdote mean? 

• ANECDOTE (noun)
  The noun ANECDOTE has 1 sense:

1. short account of an incident (especially a biographical one)

  Familiarity information: ANECDOTE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ANECDOTE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Short account of an incident (especially a biographical one)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("anecdote" is a kind of...):

account; report (the act of informing by verbal report)

Derivation:

anecdotal (having the character of an anecdote)

anecdotic; anecdotical (characterized by or given to telling anecdotes)

anecdotist (a person skilled in telling anecdotes)

 Context examples 

In one of the great juvenile periodicals he noted whole columns of incident and anecdote.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This led him to Paganini, and we sat for an hour over a bottle of claret while he told me anecdote after anecdote of that extraordinary man.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“More easily amused,” he replied; “consequently, you know,” smiling, “better company. I could not have hoped to entertain you with Irish anecdotes during a ten miles' drive.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Lady Catherine was generally speaking—stating the mistakes of the three others, or relating some anecdote of herself.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

On our little walk along the quays, he made himself the most interesting companion, telling me about the different ships that we passed by, their rig, tonnage, and nationality, explaining the work that was going forward—how one was discharging, another taking in cargo, and a third making ready for sea—and every now and then telling me some little anecdote of ships or seamen or repeating a nautical phrase till I had learned it perfectly.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

During one of the brief calls he made, he artfully led the conversation to music, and talked away about great singers whom he had seen, fine organs he had heard, and told such charming anecdotes that Beth found it impossible to stay in her distant corner, but crept nearer and nearer, as if fascinated.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

While Captains Wentworth and Harville led the talk on one side of the room, and by recurring to former days, supplied anecdotes in abundance to occupy and entertain the others, it fell to Anne's lot to be placed rather apart with Captain Benwick; and a very good impulse of her nature obliged her to begin an acquaintance with him.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

As a magistrate, he had generally some point of law to consult John about, or, at least, some curious anecdote to give; and as a farmer, as keeping in hand the home-farm at Donwell, he had to tell what every field was to bear next year, and to give all such local information as could not fail of being interesting to a brother whose home it had equally been the longest part of his life, and whose attachments were strong.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Here I discovered the roguery and ignorance of those who pretend to write anecdotes, or secret history; who send so many kings to their graves with a cup of poison; will repeat the discourse between a prince and chief minister, where no witness was by; unlock the thoughts and cabinets of ambassadors and secretaries of state; and have the perpetual misfortune to be mistaken.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He was storing his memory with anecdotes and noble names.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)