anthology

[ an-thol-uh-jee ]
See synonyms for anthology on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural an·thol·o·gies.
  1. a book or other collection of selected writings by various authors, usually in the same literary form, of the same period, or on the same subject: an anthology of Elizabethan drama; an anthology of modern philosophy.

  2. a collection of selected writings by one author.

Origin of anthology

1
First recorded in 1630–40; from Latin anthologia, from Greek: “collection of poems,” literally, “gathering of flowers,” from anthológ(os) “flower-gathering” (antho- antho- + -logos, adjective derivative of légein “to gather, recount, say, speak”) + -ia -ia

Other words from anthology

  • an·tho·log·i·cal [an-thuh-loj-i-kuhl], /ˌæn θəˈlɒdʒ ɪ kəl/, adjective
  • an·tho·log·i·cal·ly, adverb
  • an·thol·o·gist, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use anthology in a sentence

  • This is the first attempt at an anthology of Yorkshire poetry, and the forerunner of many other anthologies.

  • The “Song of the Gentleman” in particular might well be given a place in the anarchist anthologies of the future.

    The English Stage | Augustin Filon
  • Although it has been included in some anthologies, the author's name was kept an absolute secret until July, 1909.

    Essays on Modern Novelists | William Lyon Phelps
  • Its distinctive feature is the characteristic which differentiates it from all the anthologies which preceded or have followed it.

    Ephemera Critica | John Churton Collins
  • Swinburne is particularly well represented, as is seldom the case in anthologies.

    Feminism and Sex-Extinction | Arabella Kenealy

British Dictionary definitions for anthology

anthology

/ (ænˈθɒlədʒɪ) /


nounplural -gies
  1. a collection of literary passages or works, esp poems, by various authors

  2. any printed collection of literary pieces, songs, works of art, etc

Origin of anthology

1
C17: from Medieval Latin anthologia, from Greek, literally: a flower gathering, from anthos flower + legein to collect

Derived forms of anthology

  • anthological (ˌænθəˈlɒdʒɪkəl), adjective
  • anthologist, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012