MEANING
The quality of belonging to real history rather than to invented stories or legends.
Use it for
questioning whether an event actually happened; distinguishing historical evidence from legend; assessing the factual basis of an account; separating historical existence from cultural influenceSeparates whether a person, event or account has a basis in real history from its later cultural influence. Writing functions: Evidence.
Words that belong together
- historicity of an event
- question the historicity of
- establish the historicity of
On the page
The tale remained politically influential even after scholars questioned its historicity.
The inscriptions support the ruler’s historicity but do not confirm every episode in the later biography.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- historicity
Usage notes
Normally uncountable: historicity. No routine plural. Do not confuse historicity with historical importance. Register: formal. Commonness: uncommon (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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