Analects

/[ˈæ.nəˌlɛk(t)s]/ name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A collection of excerpts or quotes. plural, plural-only
  2. 2
    a collection of excerpts from a literary work wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The collected sayings of Confucius

Synonyms

All synonyms
analectaadagealbumanaanalectaanterior

Etymology

Etymology 1

First attested in 1658, from Ancient Greek ἀνάλεκτα (análekta, “things chosen”), from ἀνα- (ana-, “up”) + λέγω (légō, “I gather”). Compare lecture.

Etymology 2

From James Legge's 1861 translation of the work's Mandarin Chinese title 論語 (Lúnyǔ). "Analects" itself is a 1658 Ancient Greek loanword from ἀνάλεκτα (análekta, “things chosen”), from ἀνα- (ana-, “up”) + λέγειν (légein, “to gather”). Compare lecture.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.