anecdotal

[an-ik-doht-l, an-ik-doht-l]

adjective

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.

Origin of anecdotal

First recorded in 1830–40; anecdote + -al¹

Related formsan·ec·do·tal·ism, nounan·ec·do·tal·ly, adverbun·an·ec·do·tal, adjectiveun·an·ec·do·tal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for anecdotally

Contemporary Examples of anecdotally

Anecdotally, crime is slightly down in Ferguson since Brown died, DeCarli said.
Ferguson’s Only Unsolved Murder
Justin Glawe
October 20, 2014
Anecdotally, some babies are ‘never the same’ after vaccines.
From ‘Clueless’ to Clueless: Alicia Silverstone’s ‘The Kind Mama’
Lizzie Crocker
April 22, 2014
“Anecdotally I can tell you that the take-up rate is fairly small,” said Smyth.
Walmart’s New Embrace of Gay Employees a Sign of Corporate Shift
Daniel Gross
August 29, 2013
“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 Citizens
Andrew 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.
How Ethnic Can Our Politicians Be?
Reihan Salam
June 11, 2010

Historical Examples of anecdotally

Instruction must be carried on objectively, experimentally, anecdotally.
Talks To Teachers On Psychology; And To Students On Some Of Life's Ideals
William James

British Dictionary definitions for anecdotally

anecdotal

adjective

containing or consisting exclusively of anecdotes rather than connected discourse or research conducted under controlled conditions

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

Word Origin and History for anecdotally

anecdotal

adj.

1794, from anecdote + -al (1). Related: Anecdotally. Anecdotical is attested from 1744.