trivia
1 Americanplural noun
noun
noun
Etymology
Origin of trivia1
1900–05; pseudo-Latin trivia (neuter plural), taken as the base of trivial
Origin of Trivia2
First recorded in 1700–10; from Latin, feminine of trivius (adj.), derivative of trivium “place where three roads meet,” equivalent to tri- tri- + -vium, derivative of via “way, road”
Explanation
Can you name the twenty-third vice-president? Do you know all the state birds? If so, you must be good at trivia: facts that are interesting but not necessarily important. Everybody probably knows trivia about something they enjoy. Baseball fans can quote batting averages of their favorite players; movie nuts can tell you exactly what films their favorite actors appeared in and who they played. The game "Trivial Pursuit" is full of questions about facts like that. Why would anyone bother with trivia? Usually, because they love the topic, or maybe they need to know it for their job. One person's trivia is another person's important information.
Vocabulary lists containing trivia
A First Time for Everything
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Doing Time Online
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Not Nothing
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Then she shares a delightful, fact-based piece of trivia like, “Hey, did you know that rats giggle when you tickle them?”
From Salon • Apr. 5, 2026
The team won a 6-foot aluminum pole, among other prizes, for triumphing in a Festivus-themed trivia contest last December.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
The question seemed designed to stump even the person who wrote the episode, not to mention the obsessives competing in the recent “Seinfeld” trivia competition in New York.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
Those of us who get the right coding to only be good at trivia?
From Slate • Mar. 19, 2026
With luck, Noa wouldn’t realize anything was amiss until Jule was seriously late for trivia night, maybe around eight-thirty.
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
