Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

Definition of historic adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

historic

adjective
historic pronunciation English hɪˈstɒrɪk historic pronunciation American hɪˈstɔːrɪk historic pronunciation American hɪˈstɑːrɪk
[usually before noun]
 
1 important in history; likely to be thought of as important at some time in the futurea historic building/monumentThe area is of special historic interest.Visit historic Chester.a historic occasion/decision/day/visit/victory2 of a period during which history was recordedin historic times compare prehistoric
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 Some speakers do not pronounce the ‘h’ at the beginning of historic and use ‘an’ instead of ‘a’ before it. This now sounds old-fashioned.
Usage notesUsage note: historic / historicalHistoric is usually used to describe something that is so important that it is likely to be remembered: Today is a historic occasion for our country. Historical usually describes something that is connected with the past or with the study of history, or something that really happened in the past: I have been doing some historical research. ◇ Was Robin Hood a historical figure?