trivia
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
small, interesting pieces of information that are not very important for everyday life.
insignificant or obscure details and information. Uncountable in this general sense.
Simple“His head is full of useless trivia about 1980s horror movies.”
In context“The book is packed with fascinating trivia regarding the construction of the Eiffel Tower, though it lacks a serious historical analysis.”
UsageUsually treated as an uncountable noun when referring to the information itself.
Antonyms
PIE word *tréyes From Latin trivia, plural of trivium (“place where three roads meet”). The term came to be used for any public place, and then for anything commonplace. Furthermore, because the beginners' course at university was called trivium, the word came to be used only for anything basic, simple and trivial.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.