historical
adjective
Did you know?
historic or historical?
Do you experience a slight pause before using either of these words as you try to remember which one is correct and whether it should be preceded by an or a? If so, you’re not alone, for many people find this pair particularly tricky. Historic and historical are both occasionally found preceded by an, since the initial h in each word was formerly left unpronounced. Now this h is heard, and a is far more common than an (by a ratio of about 4 to 1 in American English).
Historic and historical have been used interchangeably by many writers, even in recent years. If you would like to avoid being corrected, however, use historical for matters relating to history (the historical society), and historic to refer to things having great and lasting importance (a historic occasion).
Examples of historical in a Sentence
Alexis Akwagyiram, semafor.com, 13 Feb. 2026
Each doll in the new collection is a historical character from the brand and represents the lives of young American girls across different eras.
—Julia Gomez, USA Today, 13 Feb. 2026
To translate Holocaust literature at a moment when genocide is not only a historical category but an active legal accusation exposes translators, editors, and institutions alike to pressures to contain, displace, or euphemize violence.
—Literary Hub, 13 Feb. 2026
In this delightfully science-minded historical fiction novel, one of the main characters runs away from her family to do astronomy while the other clocks up multiple major scientific expeditions under her belt.
—Brianne Kane, Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for historical
Cite this Entry
“Historical.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/historical. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
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historical
adjective
