MEANING
1. A short explanatory comment added to a text or image, or the act of adding one.
2. Information or a label added to data to identify features or categories.
Use it for
explaining an interpretation alongside the original material; marking uncertainty without changing a source; distinguishing a researcher’s comments from the original evidenceSeparates added explanation or labels from the original material being studied. Academic functions: Research / Methodology, Analysis / Interpretation.
Words that belong together
- marginal annotation
- explanatory annotation
- annotation of the text
On the page
The historian’s annotation explains why the date is uncertain without changing the transcript.
The edition distinguishes the author’s wording from annotations supplied by later editors.
An annotation marks the word as a verb while the corpus preserves its original sentence.
The comparison checks whether two annotators apply the same annotation guidelines to ambiguous cases.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- annotation
Usage notes
Countable for an added note or label; uncountable for the activity: annotation, annotations; annotation of a text or dataset. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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