Meaning of history in English

history

noun

/ˈhɪs.tər.i/ us

/ˈhɪs.t̬ɚ.i/

history noun (PAST EVENTS)

(the study of or a record of) past events considered together, especially events of a particular period, country, or subject:

I studied modern European history at college.

American history

history of Annie's decided to write a history of electronic music.

life history I only asked him for a cigarette, but two hours later he'd told me his whole life history.

[ U ] informal

something that happened or ended a long time ago and is not important now, or a person who is not important now, although they were in the past:

ancient history Last year's report is ancient history and totally irrelevant to the current situation.

"What about Dan - are you still seeing him?" "Oh, he's history."

More examplesFewer examples

Our guide told us a lot about the history of the castle.
He is the author of two books on French history.
Throughout history, people have been intrigued by the question of whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the dawn of a new era in European history.
He knows a lot about the history of this area, so he is often asked to speak at local clubs and societies.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

History - general words

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Subjects & disciplines

In the past

history noun (PARTICULAR RECORD)

C1 [ C usually singular ]

something that has been done or experienced by a particular person or thing repeatedly over a long period:

have a history of Her family has a history of heart problems.

history of There's a long history of industrial disputes at the factory.

credit history He has a good credit history (= a good record of paying money that he owes).

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Events and occurrences

-athon
backstory
be (all) part of life's rich tapestry/pageant idiom
benefit
binge
car wash
curve
date night
edition
epiphenomenon
episode
goings-on
occurrence
proceedings
reoccurrence
saga
shoe
spree
synchronicity
thing

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Idiom

make history

(Definition of history from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

history | American Dictionary

history

noun

/ˈhɪs·tə·ri, -tri/

history noun (PAST EVENTS)

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[ C/U ]

(the study of) past events considered together, esp. events or developments of a particular period, country, or subject:

[ U ] I’m taking a course in American history.

[ C ] I’m reading a history of jazz (= a book that describes the development of this music).

history noun (REPEATED HAPPENINGS)

[ C usually sing ]

something that has been done or experienced by a particular person or thing many times over a long period:

Our family has a history of diabetes.

(Definition of history from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

history | Business English

history

noun [ C, usually singular ]

/ˈhɪstəri/ us

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a record of past events relating to a particular person or company:

This is the 50th consecutive month of uninterrupted job growth, the longest in the nation's history.

No one else in the Bank's long history has climbed all the way up the ladder.

When a person applies for a bank account or credit card, their credit history can be tracked.

career/employment/medical history

a record of actions or events that have happened often over a period of time:

a history of sth The company has had a history of difficult management-union relations.

(Definition of history from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of history

history

The other point about official histories is that they have a tradition of being rather bland, indeed boring, in tone.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Indeed, from this perspective, one could equally well argue for similarities in their sociolinguistic histories.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, in the present study, boys' relationship histories were on a continuum going from not knowing each other to seeing their partners very often.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Such reactions may be seen as perpetuating the immaturity of those with resistant histories and the expectations for rejection of those with avoidant histories.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We refer to these classes as "no," "moderate," and "serious" histories of antisocial behavior.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The central question in this literature is this: how do we rank possible histories of the world?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Note that the proof does not require the background assumptions; it only requires the very weak assumption that there exist the three histories mentioned.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Since then at least eight other cathedrals have been similarly memorialised and several other cathedral histories are currently in the process of being written.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Utilitarianism and prioritarianism make a strong assumption about measures of how good lotteries over histories are for individuals, or for short, individual goodness measures.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Another problem is that the agency histories are too often inadequate, inaccurate or simply incomprehensible.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There are a number of possible reasons for the abbey's surprising absence from most religious histories of the period.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Later chapters cover ores and waste products, diamonds and their histories and the nature of the planetary bodies of the solar system.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Large forces and weighty histories are at work here, and their presence should be acknowledged and thought about.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

No simple equivalencewaa found in hs the distance histories of the profiles.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Other population histories were considered to demonstrate the generality of (1) and (4).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of history

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with history

history

These are words often used in combination with history.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

alternate history

She was also a forward-thinking and imaginative person, harboring an interest in horror, science fiction, alternate history, and dystopian fiction.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

architectural history

This is needed, for architectural history started in connoisseurship, with the object extracted from its context, and could only engage a few special cases.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

brief history

A brief history of empowerment of population and rising birth rates.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with history

What is the pronunciation of history?

A2,C1

Translations of history

in Chinese (Traditional)

過去的事件, 歷史, 歷史學…

Meaning of history in English

history noun (PAST EVENTS)

history noun (PARTICULAR RECORD)

Idiom

history | American Dictionary

history noun (PAST EVENTS)

history noun (REPEATED HAPPENINGS)

history | Business English

Examples of history

Collocations with history

history

Translations of history

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