Annals

//ˈæn.əlz// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    plural of annal form-of, plural
  2. 2
    A relation of events in chronological order, each event being recorded under the year in which it happened. plural, plural-only

    "So ended this great siege, the most memorable in the annals of the British isles. It had lasted a hundred and five days"

  3. 3
    a chronological account of events in successive years wordnet
  4. 4
    Historical records; chronicles; history. plural, plural-only

    "the short and simple annals of the poor"

  5. 5
    reports of the work of a society or learned body etc wordnet
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    A periodic publication, containing records of discoveries, transactions of societies, etc. plural, plural-only

    "Annals of Science"

Example

More examples

"The lessons learned from the annals of history on peak wood should heighten our awareness of the consequences of the limits of natural resources."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French annales, from Latin annālēs librī (“chronicles”), from annālis (“pertaining to a year”), from annus (“year”) + librī, plural of liber (“book”). Compare with annual.

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