anthology
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
a book that contains a collection of poems, stories, or songs, usually by different authors.
a published collection of poems or other pieces of writing, typically by different authors or selected from the works of a single author.
Simple“The teacher asked us to read three poems from the new anthology of modern verse.”
In context“The publisher released a definitive anthology of twentieth-century short stories, featuring both canonical authors and previously overlooked voices.”
Synonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
a series of films or television shows where each episode or part has a different story and different characters.
a series of self-contained films or television episodes, often linked by a common theme or genre rather than a continuous plot.
Simple“It is an anthology series, so you can watch the episodes in any order you like.”
In context“The show's anthology format allowed the writers to explore diverse genres, ranging from psychological horror to satirical science fiction, within a single season.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
a collection or mixture of different things.
an assortment or collection of various items, used figuratively to describe a diverse mixture.
Simple“The old shop sold an anthology of strange objects from all over the world.”
In context“The attic was filled with a dusty anthology of family relics, spanning three generations of travel and domestic life.”
Synonyms
“This Everyman African Stories anthology brings together 36 classical African stories written in, or translated into, English.”
“The couple have worked together once before, editing an anthology, Imagine a Country , in which Scottish writers lay out their vision for a better future.”
Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀνθολογία (anthología, “flower-gathering”), from ἀνθολογέω (anthologéō, “I gather flowers”), from ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”) + λέγω (légō, “I gather, pick up, collect”), coined by Meleager of Gadara circa 60 BCE, originally as Στέφανος (στέφανος (stéphanos, “garland”)) to describe a collection of poetry, later retitled anthology – see Greek Anthology. Anthologiai were collections of small Greek poems and epigrams, because in Greek culture the flower symbolized the finer sentiments that only poetry can express. By surface analysis, antho- + -logy.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.