anecdotal
[an-ik-doht-l, an-ik-doht-l]
- pertaining to, resembling, or containing anecdotes: an anecdotal history of jazz.
- (of the treatment of subject matter in representational art) pertaining to the relationship of figures or to the arrangement of elements in a scene so as to emphasize the story content of a subject.Compare narrative(def 7).
- based on personal observation, case study reports, or random investigations rather than systematic scientific evaluation: anecdotal evidence.
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Origin of anecdotal
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for anecdotally
Contemporary Examples
Anecdotally, crime is slightly down in Ferguson since Brown died, DeCarli said.
Anecdotally, some babies are ‘never the same’ after vaccines.
“Anecdotally I can tell you that the take-up rate is fairly small,” said Smyth.
“Anecdotally, we have U.S. citizens who smuggle drugs, in large amounts sometimes,” he says.
At Mexican Border, Four in Five Drug Busts Involve American CitizensAndrew Becker, G. W. Schulz, Tia Ghose
March 26, 2013
Anecdotally, the influx of immigrants from Latin America and East Asia seems to have strengthened Latino and Asian identities.
Historical Examples
Instruction must be carried on objectively, experimentally, anecdotally.
anecdotal
- containing or consisting exclusively of anecdotes rather than connected discourse or research conducted under controlled conditions
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for anecdotally
anecdotal
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper